A significant portion of the talk leading up to the game concerned the two teams’ amazing 3-point shooting talents. Contrary to popular belief, this game was not a shootout.

Compared to the 13-24 it scored against Purdue in the first half, Alabama’s long-range shooting performance in the first half was 1-11. Only eight 3s were attempted by Creighton, and he converted on three of them.

During the game, the Crimson Tide placed a lot of emphasis on assaulting the paint. By the end of the first half, Alabama had scored 36 of its 44 points from within the paint, and Creighton had no defence against their relentless attack of alley-oop smashes.

Moving forward With eight of his twelve points in the first half coming from the rim, Nick Pringle was the primary benefactor of these lobs. After fouling out late in the second half, he finished with fifteen points.

The injury suffered by Creighton centre Ryan Kalkbrenner, who seemed to roll his ankle on Alabama guard Aaron Estrada’s shoe around halfway through the first half, may have contributed to some of the Crimson Tide’s success in the paint during that half. For the balance of the half, Kalkbrenner stayed out of the game.
During the game, the Crimson Tide placed a lot of emphasis on assaulting the paint. By the end of the first half, Creighton had scored all 44 points, 36 of them from within the paint.

With almost three minutes left in the half, Alabama eventually took the lead after spending the majority of the first half playing catch-up. At the half, the score was tied at 44.

When he came back to begin the second half, Kalkbrenner had an instant impact. In the first five minutes of the half, he scored six points and created a defensive presence that occasionally made life difficult for the Crimson Tide.

With eight rebounds, three blocks, and nine points on 9–11 shooting, he concluded the game with 19 points.

For both teams, three-pointers were infrequent during the whole contest. Throughout the game, the two teams combined for ten 3-pointers. In their previous game against Purdue, Alabama made 19 3-pointers.

Alabama dominated the paint in the second half despite Kalkbrenner’s comeback, scoring a season-high 62 points in the paint and outrebounding the Bluejays 37-32 with a 17-7 edge on the offensive board.

Foul play has been an issue for this Alabama squad all season, and against the Bluejays, those issues were evident. During the game, the Crimson Tide committed 25 total fouls, while Creighton only committed 16. In a very close game, both forwards Pringle and Mohamed Wague fouled out with a large amount of time remaining.

Oats stated, “Our bigs need to learn how to guard without fouling.” “We must do a better job of keeping them out of situations where they are forced to foul.”