Alabama, Auburn advance to the second round of March Madness

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WAFF) - Thursday became an Alabama and Auburn party in the NCAA Tournament.

The top-seeded Crimson Tide defeated 16-seed Texas A&M Corpus-Christi 96-75 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Star Freshman guard Brandon Miller was held scoreless in the game, his teammates stepped up in his absence. Five players scored in double figures, including Muscle Shoals native Mark Sears who scored 15 points.

”As soon as we came out of that tunnel, I had chills,” Sears said after the game “Just seeing all the love was just an unbelievable experience.”

Nick Pringle scored a game-high 19 points as Alabama scored 49 bench points in the game.

”To have the amount of talent you have on the bench and still have the chemistry and guys are always ready that don’t play many minutes, that speaks more for the guys and the character on the bench, Nate Oats said after the game. “It’s great.”One minute, 8 minutes, 21 minutes, 18 minutes, 19 minutes from (Noah) Gurley and then 14 minutes, we were able to get that many minutes off the bench is nice. We gotta turn around and play in less than 48 hours, so it was nice to get that many minutes off the bench.”

The Auburn Tigers advance to the round of 32 after beating Iowa 83-75. Six players scored in double figures led by Sophomore Jhoni Broome’s 19 points and 12 rebounds.

”I was a two-seed last year,” Zep Jasper said after the game. “I lost to a great Miami team last year, they came in and smacked us in the mouth, but like I said we’re the underdog this year, no one is counting on us, no one believed in us. But like I said I believe in us. Our coach believes in us, we believe we can win, we believe we can beat any team in the country. But it takes the whole team, it takes the whole jungle, it takes our, our family, our friends. It just takes everyone if we want it.”

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