No. 22 Alabama starts hot, hammers Mercer

No. 22 Alabama sank its first nine shots of the game and kept on rolling to a 98-67 victory against Mercer on Friday night in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Mark Sears scored 19 of his 24 points in the first half for the Crimson Tide (4-0), who fell just short of reaching triple-digits for the fourth straight game to begin the season. Alabama hasn't opened a campaign with four games of 100-plus scoring since 1956-57.

Nick Pringle and Jarin Stevenson added 14 points each and Aaron Estrada had 10 as the Crimson Tide extended their home winning streak to 19 games. Sears went 8 of 12 from the field and 7 of 8 from the foul line while contributing six assists and five rebounds.

Alabama shot 59.3 percent (35 of 59) from the field and 42.1 percent (8 of 19) from 3-point range, outrebounded Mercer by a 44-30 margin and got points from 11 players.

Jalyn McCreary had 17 points and eight rebounds and Amanze Ngumezi added 11 points to lead the Bears (1-3), who shot 40.6 percent (26 of 64) overall and 21.4 percent (3 of 14) from deep.

Up by 27 at halftime, Alabama's advantage grew to 61-31 on Rylan Griffen's layup with 16:34 to play.

Pringle's alley-oop dunk on a feed from Sears made it 81-51 with 7:48 remaining.

The lead reached 90-53 on Pringle's layup with 4:55 left.

The Tide got to 97 points on Sam Walters' layup with 2:31 remaining but finally went cold and fell short of the century mark.

Alabama came out firing, building a 19-6 lead on perfect 9-for-9 shooting to begin the night.

Mercer didn't make its first field goal until Ngumezi's jumper 5:12 into the game.

The Tide ended the first half on a 12-0 run. A layup by Sears beat the halftime buzzer to make it 56-29.

Alabama shot 79.3 percent (23 of 29) from the field in the first half, including 6 of 8 from downtown.

This was a campus game for the Emerald Coast Classic, which continues on Nov. 24 in Niceville, Fla., with the Crimson Tide facing Ohio State and Mercer taking on Tennessee State.

—Field Level Media