TUSCALOOSA — Mark Sears, who transferred to Alabama from Ohio University prior to the 2022 season, surpassed 1,500 career points with the help of his team-high 13 Tuesday night in a victory over Arkansas State.
“It’s a blessing to be able to hit 1,500 and especially to be able to do it in my home state,” Sears, a Muscle Shoals native, said in the postgame news conference. “It’s a blessing to do that.”
The Kid from Muscle Shoals, Ala.@imcsears | @CBKReport pic.twitter.com/g65nuMq1DI
— Alabama Men’s Basketball (@AlabamaMBB) December 7, 2023
Arkansas State head coach Bryan Hodgson brought his Red Wolves into Coleman Coliseum to face his former team and ended up on the wrong side of the 85-69 final score.
“It was great seeing Coach (Hodgson),” Sears said. “(Arkansas State) plays exactly like us, very physical, they go to the (offensive) boards really hard, so it was great seeing him again.”
In addition to leading the Tide in points, Sears also dished out a team-high six assists and grabbed two steals in the win.
“I wanted to be aggressive, but be smart aggressive,” Sears said about his assists. “I wanted to get my teammates involved early.” Five of his six assists came in the first half.
Alabama head coach Nate Oats called it a solid win.
“We needed to get this win and play better defense and we did that. They exposed a few things that we need to work on – our defensive rebounding needs major work before we play Purdue. We’ve got a tough three-game stretch ahead of us so we’ll continue to work on our defense and continue to get better and see what we can do.”
Alabama’s three-game road trip sees it taking on three teams in the top 25. First, the Tide heads north for a Saturday matchup with No. 4 Purdue in the Hall of Fame Toronto Series in Toronto, Ont. The game tips off at 12:30 p.m. on Fox.
Alabama visits No. 10 Creighton on Dec. 16 at 7 p.m. on Fox, and No. 1 Arizona on Dec. 20 at 10 p.m. on ESPN.
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