Mark Sears and Alabama survive scare and beat 15th-seeded Robert Morris 90-81 in March Madness

CLEVELAND (AP) — All-America guard Mark Sears scored 19 of his 22 points in the second half and second-seeded Alabama pulled away late to escape 15th-seeded Robert Morris 90-81 on Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

The Colonials gave the Crimson Tide (27-8) all they could handle and even took their first lead at 65-64 on a layup by Josh Omojafo to bring the Rocket Arena crowd to its feet.

Alabama responded behind Sears, who had seven points during an 11-2 surge that gave the Crimson Tide some breathing room against the Horizon League champions.

“(I) kept playing the right way, and then the game repaid me back,” said Sears, who also had five rebounds and 10 of Alabama's 25 assists.

Robert Morris (26-9) came in as a 22-1/2 point underdog, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, yet spent most of the afternoon threatening to author the first true bracket-buster of the tournament after a relatively quiet opening day on Thursday.

Instead, the Crimson Tide gathered themselves to advance. Alabama will face Saint Mary's in the second round on Sunday after the seventh-seeded Gaels rallied past 10th-seeded Vanderbilt.

“We’ve been here before,” said Crimson Tide sophomore forward Mouhamed Dioubate, who finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds in 21 foul-plagued minutes. “We’ve been in these positions all season and last year. ... So we’ve been here before, so we’ve seen this before.”

Cleveland native Amarion Dickerson led the Colonials with 25 points, including a spectacular sequence in the second half in which the 6-foot-7 junior put together a series of athletic buckets that helped erase a 10-point deficit. Dickerson added nine rebounds, and his six offensive boards were one more than the Crimson Tide had as a team.

“He seemed to be everywhere when we needed a play,” Robert Morris coach Andy Toole said of Dickerson. “We were down 10. He went on his little personal run there and got us back into that game, and I don’t think anybody that was associated with Robert Morris basketball is surprised by it one bit.”

Second-half Nelson

How serious did it get? Alabama forward Grant Nelson, who was a game-time decision due to a knee injury, made his first appearance midway through the second half in hopes of finally putting the Colonials away.

Nelson eventually did just that, throwing down a two-handed dunk with just over two minutes left that pushed Alabama's lead back to double digits.

“We didn’t play as well as we had hoped, and Grant was like, ‘We’re not going home, put me in,’” Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats said.

Nelson finished with five points and three rebounds in seven minutes. Barring a setback, he should be available on Sunday.

Crimson Tide center Clifford Omoruyi had a season-high 17 points on 8-for-8 shooting, most of them dunks against the smaller Colonials.

Takeaways

Robert Morris: The Colonials found their footing in their fifth season in the Horizon League under Toole, who called this group the best team in program history. The Penn graduate figures to have his name pop up in connection with a vacancy or two (his alma mater is looking for a coach), though the 44-year-old has stressed he's content at a school where's been a fixture since 2007.

Alabama: The Crimson Tide did not panic late even as momentum and most of the capacity crowd turned against them. An experienced group that's already made deep tournament runs just kept going, and the nation's highest-scoring team reached the 90-point mark for the 19th time this season.