Griffen and Sears lift Alabama over Auburn

Rylan Griffen and Mark Sears were the only Alabama players hitting their 3-point shots, and it was just enough.

Griffen scored 16 points, Sears added 15 and No. 3 Alabama held off a big challenge from its in-state rival, beating Auburn 77-69 on Saturday. The Crimson Tide (22-3, 12-0 Southeastern Conference) remained the only Power-5 team without a league loss, but it was iffy most of the way with Auburn putting the defensive clamps on star Brandon Miller.

“I thought our guys showed some resilience to weather a bad shooting night from Brandon,” Tide coach Nate Oats said. “We had some other guys step up.”

The Tigers (17-8, 7-5) missed nine straight shots in the final minutes. They have dropped five of their last six.

“Our team is playing good basketball right now,” Tigers coach Bruce Pearl said. “We’re playing well. We’re just not playing well enough to beat the best team in the country.”

◼ Jalen Wilson scored 18 points to help No. 9 Kansas roll past Oklahoma 78-55 . ... Kam Jones, Oso Ighodaro and Tyler Kolek each scored 14 points to lead a balanced scoring attack and No. 10 Marquette beat Georgetown 89-75. Marquette moved into first place in the Big East Conference.

Golf: Former No. 1 Jiyai Shin shot a 6-under 66 Saturday to trail thirdround leader Cassie Porter by two strokes going into the final round of the Vic Open.

NHL: Mike Matheson scored in overtime to lift the Canadiens over the Islanders 4-3. Nick Suzuki broke a nine-game scoring drought, while Justin Barron and Kirby Dach added third-period goals.

Soccer: Vinicius Junior and Federico Valverde each scored twice as Real Madrid won the FIFA Club World Cup for a record-extending fifth time after a 5-3 victory over Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal in Saturday’s final in Rabat, Morocco.