PORTLAND, Ore. — Alabama coach Nate Oats said on Friday after both the Crimson Tide and North Carolina lost games in the Phil Knight Invitational that Sunday’s matchup would be as close to a must-win game as one could be in November.
Both teams played like it too.
It was physical. It was intense. It couldn’t even be settled in regulation. Or in the first overtime. Or in the second. Or even in the third.
The game had 15 ties and 14 lead changes before finally, in the fourth overtime, Alabama emerged a 103-101 victor.
Leaky Black’s 3-pointer with 1:34 left put the Heels up 101-100. They had a chance to go up three, but R.J. Davis’ jumper in the lane rimmed out.
Alabama re-took the lead with a Charles Bediako layup and the 7-foot center was again the focus on defense.
He blocked a Caleb Love shot that was ruled goaltending, giving Carolina the lead with 9.3 seconds. When the play was reviewed, officials overturned the call and alternating possession gave the ball back to the Tide. Love finished with a career-high 34 points.
UNC freshman Seth Trimble entered the game, presumably to foul and send Alabama to the free throw line. But his defense on Mark Sears during the in-bounds pass forced a turnover when he dove and the ball last touched Sears.
Carolina was forced to in-bound from a tricky angle in the corner of the baseline and Pete Nance, without any timeouts left, threw the ball away.
The Heels had a final chance to tie or win after Jaden Bradley made one free throw, but R.J. Davis’ 3-pointer at the buzzer wasn’t close.
It was just the second four-overtime game in Carolina’s history, the previous coming in a win over Tulane in 1976.
Carolina opened the third overtime scoring on its first three possessions to take a six-point lead. Bama cut it to 96-94 on a Brandon Miller 3-pointer and the Heels missed shots on their next three possessions allowing the Tide to tie it on a pair of Jahvon Quinerly free throws with 28 seconds left. With a chance to take the lead on a final shot, Nance’s skip pass across the court was too long for Love to handle.
It gave the Tide the ball back with 3.0 seconds left. Bama then turned the ball back over when Jaden Bradley’s in-bounds pass sailed over Quinerly’s hands out of bounds.
That gave Carolina possession at the same spot on its side of the court and Love’s 3-pointer came up short.
Carolina again was hurt by 3-point shooting. Instead of one player who just got hot like in Caleb Grill’s seven 3s, and 31-point performance for Iowa State. Both Quinerly and Mark Sears paced Bama by making a combined eight of their first 14 shots from behind the arc.
Quinerly would eventually match Grill’s seven 3s en route to a team-high 24 points.
The Tide totaled 16 3s, which meant Carolina allowed 10 or more in two of its three games at the PKI and all three teams shot 37 percent or better.
Bama needed its outside shooting because leading scorer Brandon Miller, who entered the game averaging 20.5 points, found out why Leaky Black is one of the better defenders in the nation.
Black frustrated Miller early on, twice blocking his shots. When Miller also got into foul trouble in the first half, he never was able to get into a scoring rhythm. Miller only scored seven points in regulation and finished with 14 points on 4-of-21 shooting.
Black also was the on-ball defender on Alabama’s final shot of regulation. He got switched on Quinerly and forced a final miss as the game went to overtime.
Black was at in again in the second overtime with the Heels trailing by two. He tapped the ball just as Miller was trying to drive and the steal lead to a Caleb Love layup to tie the game at 89.
