Led by Mark Sears, Alabama breaks the record for 3-pointers in a March Madness game with 25

There was no such thing as a bad shot for Alabama in the Sweet 16.

Certainly not from beyond the arc, where the Crimson Tide set March Madness records by making 25 3-pointers, attempting 51 and knocking one of college basketball’s most memorable teams, Loyola Marymount, out of a perch it had held for 35 years.

Mark Sears highlighted Alabama’s 113-88 win over BYU on Thursday night by going 10 for 16 from 3 and finishing with 34 points.

“I was just in a zone,” Sears said. “Once I seen the first 3 fell in, I felt the basket was as big as an ocean. And every time I shot, I felt like it was going in. Just lost myself in the game and just let everything else happen.”

Sears hit the record-breaking 22nd 3 late in the game to make it 97-66 and received a standing ovation when he checked out with 10 3s and more than four minutes left to play.

Sears ended up one long-range basket short of breaking the record Jeff Fryer set in Loyola Marymount’s record-breaking 149-115 tournament blowout of Michigan back in 1990. That Lions team starred Hank Gathers before his fatal collapse on the court and was coached by Paul Westhead, whose team cracked 100 points in all but three games that season.

Fun fact: After the win over Michigan, Loyola Marymount beat none other than Alabama, coached back then by Wimp Sanderson. The score was 62-60 — by far, Loyola Marymount’s lowest-scoring game of the season.

This year’s Tide, with Nate Oats coaching, are the highest-scoring team in the country at 90.8 points a game. This was the ninth time they cracked triple digits.

Sears, a first-team All-America guard, was in a long-range slump entering the game. He went just 1 of 9 over the first weekend of the tournament and was just 3 of 25 over his last five games. That dumped his success rate to just 33% on the season — a year after he made 44% of 3s to help the Crimson Tide reach the Final Four for the first time in program history.

Consider the slump busted.

“I told Mark he’s playing chess, not checkers,” Oats said. “He just kind of set everybody up, thinking he was in a slump and he’s going to come out and shoot.”

So did the rest of the Crimson Tide.

An experienced group that’s already made deep tournament runs just kept going. The Tide only tried 15 shots from inside the arc. They made 10. Collectively, Alabama shot 53% from the floor and also made 18 of 21 free throws.

They also broke a week-old record for 3-point attempts, surpassing the 46 Texas Tech hoisted last week in a first-round win over UNC-Wilmington.

“We’ve been preparing all week to get our shot right,” Sears said. “The amount of preparation we put in, it led to the success we had tonight.”

Aden Holloway made six 3s, Chris Youngblood hit five and Alabama shot 49% from behind the arc. The 25 makes were also the most for the Crimson Tide — playing in their third straight Sweet 16 — in any game in program history.

“An open 3 is kind of a layup, so we’re happy with 77% of our shots coming from 3 today,” Holloway said.

Alabama’s previous 3-point record was 23 against LSU in 2021. John Petty Jr. twice hit 10 3s, the latter time against Samford in 2019.

BYU was brutal from beyond the arc, missing 24 of 30 attempts.

Pretty good D. Not good enough for Oats and a team trying to reach another Final Four, against top-seeded Duke.

“We don’t want to give up 3s,” Oats said. “Our defense did a fairly decent job of it at times, but not to the level we need to. We try to play analytically sound basketball on both sides of the ball.”

The Crimson Tide rode the long ball to their first-ever Final Four appearance last year. Sears made seven 3-pointers and Alabama hit 16 3s in an Elite Eight win over Clemson.

“If Duke or Arizona, whoever ends up winning, decides they’re not going to give us some 3s, that’s fine, too,” Oats said. “Let’s get to the rim.”

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AP National Writer Eddie Pells contributed to this report.

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