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The No. 2 Seed Alabama Crimson Tide fought off a feisty No. 15 seed in the Iona Gaels in the round of 64 of the NCAA Tournament. A three-pointer by the Tide’s Alex Reese with 8:10 remaining in the second half sparked a run that allowed the Tide to pull away from Iona, 68-55.
Iona had similar aspirations to another lowly-rated 15-seed in Oral Roberts. The Golden Eagles shocked the nation and trashed thousands of brackets by upsetting No. 2 Seed Ohio State one day earlier.
The Gaels, led by legendary head coach Rick Pitino, played No. 2 Seed Alabama tough in the first half, only trailing the Crimson Tide, 33-32 at halftime.
Both teams continued to trade blows as they returned to the court, exchanging leads 11 different times to open the second half.
Alabama’s Juwan Gary scored a layup to tie the game at 42 with 11:08 remaining in the half. Alex Reese would follow that with a three-pointer 22 seconds later to give Alabama the 45-42 lead, and they would not look back.
Alabama would finish the game by out scoring Iona 23-15 to defeat the Gaels, and advance to the Round of 32 of the NCAA Tournament. Herbert Jones led the Tide in scoring 20 points, while John Petty scored 10 points and pulled down seven rebounds.
Alabama awaits the winner of the No. 7 UConn/No. 10 Maryland matchup.