Alabama became yet another victim of the long list of upsets that have occurred during this year’s edition of March Madness, dropping their first-round game to the West Region’s 11-seeded Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the first round of the 2022 NCAA Tournament.
The Irish came out strong in the first half and took a five-point lead heading into the locker room for the halftime break.
The second half was much of the same, unfortunately for Tide fans, and Alabama turned the ball over 14 times over the course of the game.
Cormac Ryan was hitting everything he put up and scored a career-high 29 points for the Irish in Notre Dame’s second consecutive win in the tournament.
The Irish shot 53.7% from the floor and hit on 10 of 16 three-pointers.
The loss to Jahvon Quinerly early in the first half certainly didn’t help matters for the Crimson Tide, as his production was profoundly missed in the several minutes following his injury.
Alabama shot just 40% from the floor overall and didn’t do any better than usual from beyond the three-point line, knocking down just eight of 24 attempts from three.
Keon Ellis led the Crimson Tide in scoring with 16 points, but four different Alabama players got into double digits in the loss. The Tide’s leading scorer on the season, Jaden Shackelford, scored 13, JD Davison tallied 11 and Juwan Gary scored 10.
Charles Bediako fouled out with 5:37 remaining in the game, but afterward, the Tide looked like they could make a run to shrink the lead. That never came to fruition, unfortunately, as the Irish got another spark from a Ryan three-pointer and the onslaught continued.
The 2021-22 season ends for the Crimson Tide, but there is still a ton of reason to be excited for the future of the program. Nate Oats had his Alabama squad in the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive time, which the program hasn’t accomplished since 2004 and 2005, and we are just one year removed from an SEC regular season and SEC Tournament championship.
While we expect certain players to go pro or transfer out of the program, it remains to be seen who could stay. You can be sure that you will be promptly updated whenever we receive information in that regard.
Roll Tide Wire will continue to keep you updated on all things Crimson Tide athletics.
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