NEWARK, N.J. — The East Region track meet between No. 2 Alabama and No. 6 Brigham Young was shaping up to be the game these run-and-gun offensive heavyweights wanted to play: crisp, highly efficient, supremely productive on the offensive end and largely devoid of something called defense, which supposedly wins championships but is clearly unnecessary to reach the NCAA men's tournament Elite Eight.
Then the Crimson Tide started to heat up from deep. Then they turned sweltering, sizzling, blistering, downright volcanic, center-of-the-sun hot.
In the end, Alabama’s 113-88 win was propelled by a 25 makes from 3-point range to the Cougars’ six, giving the Tide a gargantuan edge BYU was unable to overcome despite attacking Alabama’s porous interior defense with 50 points in the paint.