TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The Alabama basketball program welcomed fans back to Coleman Coliseum for the first time in 33 days as they greeted a niche rival in the Creighton Bluejays. The Crimson Tide’s defensive efforts carried the team through a first-half shooting slump and saw Alabama claim the program’s first win over Creighton 83-75.

Alabama worked its way into a 17-point first half lead, but closed the first frame making just one of its last 15 shots from the floor to end the opening half ahead by just six. The poor shooting continued into the second frame as the Crimson Tide made just two of its first 10 shots from the floor, but strong rebounding and defending kept Alabama in firm control.

“That’s a good win, that’s a good team,” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said. “They’re going to win a lot of games in the Big East. It wasn’t necessarily the prettiest game at times, but I thought our guys were resilient. We built the lead in the first half, you’ve got to give Creighton a ton of credit. They kept hammering away, I think they finished that first half on a 21-10 run, so we didn’t close like we needed to.

“They’re good. [Ryan] Kalkbrenner’s one of the better bigs in the country. He’s big, he’s got size, you’ve got to pay attention to him in the post. I thought we had a decent plan and we executed for the most part, he still ended up with 18 points. Our pick-and-roll defense wasn’t great. They exposed it in the second half. We were trying to close out the game and gave up way too many threes. [Steven] Ashworth’s one of the better guards in the country. We fell asleep on some stuff with him. I thought for large parts we were good defensively but they’re so explosive in short stints, if you fall asleep they make you pay.”

The Crimson Tide struggled from beyond the arc, making just 20-percent from beyond the arc, but was able to get 14 second chance points and 12 fast break points in an effort to score in other ways.

Alabama was led offensively by senior Mark Sears who was a bright spot shooting, making four of seven from behind the arc, scoring 27 points to pace the Crimson Tide offense, while also securing six rebounds and four assists.

Freshman Labaron Philon made a big impact by getting to the rim effectively. He scored 16 points and chipped in five rebounds with two assists and two steals.

The night also included the season debut of Alabama guard Chris Youngblood. The Tuscaloosa product was subbed into each half off the bench after dealing with an offseason ankle injury and scored five points with one rebound and two steals.

Creighton hung around throughout the night as Alabama struggled for the second year in guarding forward Ryan Kalkbrenner. The 7-foot-1 centerpiece scored 18 points and had seven rebounds, but he couldn’t find enough help to steal a road victory. The Bluejays were actually led offensively by guard Steven Ashworth as he scored 20 points with nine assists.

Despite Kalkbrenner’s offensive success, the Crimson Tide fared well on the inside, scoring 44 points in the paint and outrebounding the Bluejays as a team 46-32 and only giving up five offensive rebounds.

Alabama returns to action on Wednesday, Dec. 18 as they’ll travel to North Dakota to take on the Fighting Hawks in forward Grant Nelson’s backyard at 8 p.m. CT.