Alabama takes on No. 8 Creighton after Sears’ 35-point game

Alabama Crimson Tide (6-3) at Creighton Bluejays (8-2)

Omaha, Nebraska; Saturday, 8 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Alabama visits the No. 8 Creighton Bluejays after Mark Sears scored 35 points in Alabama’s 92-86 loss to the Purdue Boilermakers.

The Bluejays are 5-0 in home games. Creighton ranks fourth in the Big East in team defense, allowing 65.0 points while holding opponents to 41.3% shooting.

The Crimson Tide play their first true road game after going 6-3 with a 1-2 record in neutral-site games to start the season. Alabama is fourth in the SEC with 10.8 offensive rebounds per game led by Nick Pringle averaging 2.0.

Creighton makes 50.2% of its shots from the field this season, which is 6.0 percentage points higher than Alabama has allowed to its opponents (44.2%). Alabama has shot at a 49.5% rate from the field this season, 8.2 percentage points higher than the 41.3% shooting opponents of Creighton have averaged.

TOP PERFORMERS: Baylor Scheierman is shooting 37.2% from beyond the arc with 3.2 made 3-pointers per game for the Bluejays, while averaging 18.3 points, 7.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists. Ryan Kalkbrenner is shooting 64.0% and averaging 15.8 points for Creighton.

Sears is averaging 21.4 points and 3.9 assists for the Crimson Tide. Aaron Estrada is averaging 14.9 points for Alabama.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.