Alabama's Oats benches top scorer Sears for defensive reasons

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — Alabama guard Mark Sears came into Saturday night's game against LSU leading the team and the Southeastern Conference in scoring but was held scoreless and spent the entire second half of the Crimson Tide's 80-73 win on the bench.

“We played the guys that we thought gave us the best chance to win in the second half,” Alabama coach Nate Oats said.

Sears, a preseason All-American averaging 19 points per game, went 0 for 5 from the field with three rebounds, three assists and two turnovers.

Oats pointed to defensive consistency, especially into the second half, as a reason for lineup changes.

“I didn’t think our second-half defense has been very good lately, so we made the point to the guys, we’re done starting the same group that starts the game,” Oats said. “Our defense was significantly better in the second half than in the first half, and we haven’t done that much this year.”

___

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-toWp-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball