TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Mark Sears scored 27 points and No. 7 Alabama fended off a late comeback attempt to beat Creighton 83-75 on Saturday night.

Sears, a senior guard who contributed six rebounds and four assists, made two 3-pointers and shot 8 for 15 from the field in the final six minutes. He made 4 of 7 shots from 3-point range and was responsible for the majority of the Crimson Tide’s long-range shots as the team shot 6 for 30 (20%) from distance.

Freshman Labaron Philon scored 16 points and Derrion Reid 12 for Alabama (8-2).

Creighton’s Jackson McAndrew scored 13 of his 16 points in the final six minutes and kept the Bluejays (7-4) within striking distance for most of the final minutes. Steven Ashworth led Creighton with 20 points and Ryan Kalkbrenner had 18 points and seven rebounds.

Takeaways

Creighton: The Bluejays, playing their first road game of the season, quickly fell behind, trailing by 14 points midway through the first half. They got within six points by halftime and were down by six again in the final three minutes of the game.

Alabama: The Crimson Tide defeated a strong conference team despite Grant Nelson scoring just four points and grabbing 10 rebounds.

Key moment

Alabama made its final eight free throws, all with under four minutes left, to maintain its lead. The Tide entered the game shooting 72.8% from the line and finished the game 17-22 (77.2%).

Key statistics

Alabama grabbed 17 offensive rebounds and scored 14 second-chance points from those rebounds.

Next

Alabama plays at North Dakota on Wednesday, a game scheduled for North Dakota native Nelson. Creighton opens Big East play at Georgetown on Wednesday.

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