Devils Lake alum Grant Nelson is headed to the Sweet 16.
Nelson, who stands at 6-foot-11, won Mr. Basketball for Devils Lake in 2020. He spent three years playing for North Dakota State University before transferring to Alabama as one of the top NBA draft prospects in the country. He put up 17.9 points and 9.3 rebounds per game in his junior year, earning him a transfer to a prestigious Crimson Tide program.
Nelson is one of nine kids. One of his younger brothers, Joel, recently helped the Firebirds snap a 99-year state championship drought. In the midst of the celebration, reporter Cullen Holt captured a moment of Grant congratulating his brother through FaceTime.
Nelson averaged nearly 12 points a game during the regular season as Alabama’s starting center. He’s continued to start for this No. 4-seeded Alabama squad, and though he didn’t put up his best personal performance, he and the team did enough to advance last weekend in Pittsburgh. It’s the 10th time Alabama has ever made it to the Sweet 16.
“It means everything. I’ve never been in this position,” Nelson told The Next Round. “Just seeing everyone so happy; I mean, I’m happy myself, but we’re not done yet. We’re ready for the next game.”
The Tide’s first-round opponent was the No. 13 seed in the West Region, College of Charleston, on Friday.
Nelson opened the game with a three-point attempt, but he missed it and the Cougars took an early 4-0 lead. Charleston built its advantage to 19-13, and only then did the Tide get things going.
Alabama went on a 10-0 run to take a lead it would never look back on. Nelson got on the board at the 5:54 mark with a free throw that gave the Tide a 34-26 cushion. The Cougars brought it back to as close as 35-32, but Alabama responded with another run, this time at 12-0 to go ahead by 15.
Nelson fueled this stretch with a highlight-reel alley-oop. Aaron Estrada threw up a lob for him, and he smashed it into the basket for his first field goal of the game at the 3:04 mark.
Alabama had a 16-2 run overall to end the first half with a 51-34 lead.
Nelson was quieted in the second half and finished with only three points overall, but he sat for much of it anyway with his team up so big. The Tide led 90-61 at one point. The lead was trimmed to 13 by the end, though the majority of the Cougars’ scoring essentially came in garbage time. Alabama won 109-96, getting 30 points from Mark Sears and 17 from Latrell Wrightsell Jr.
Sears passed 701 points, giving him the second-most points in a season in Alabama history.
The win advanced Alabama to the round of 32 on Sunday. Its next opponent was No. 12 Grand Canyon, which upset No. 5 Saint Mary’s in the first round.
Sears continued to play hero and got the game going with a three-pointer. Nelson missed an early shot on the run, prompting an interaction where Sears appeared to get on Nelson a little bit.
But Nelson made up for it a few minutes later with a leaping block. He used his 6-foot-11 frame to swat the ball away on a three-point attempt and keep Alabama up 7-5.
The Lopes put up a fight and went ahead 9-7, but Sears hit another three. The Tide went on an 8-0 run to go up 15-9, which set a team record: 3,028 total points, the most an Alabama squad has ever scored in a season. Nelson, the kid from Devils Lake, contributed nearly 400 of those points.
The Tide edged out the Lopes for much of the first half, but Grand Canyon managed to tie it at 28-28 towards the end of the half. Nelson had a free throw that put Alabama up 29-28. The lead was back to a fairly comfortable 38-30 at halftime.
Early in the second half, Nelson intercepted a pass while running down the court. He maneuvered his body to stay in bounds and pass it back down to Sears, who put Alabama up by 10. Sears praised Nelson this time around, as it was the senior’s athletic prowess that flipped the possession and allowed the Tide to build upon their lead.
But once again, the Lopes chipped away. They brought the score from 48-39 to 48-44, then from 52-46 to 52-50. Sears swished another three, but Grand Canyon responded with eight straight points to go ahead 58-55 with a little more than six minutes left.
The Crimson Tide’s Sweet 16 hopes were in jeopardy.
But they made four consecutive points, two via free throws and two more after a missed free throw that they rebounded. This time, they never relinquished their advantage. Grand Canyon still kept it as close as 62-61, but Sears smashed a dunk and Alabama made four free throws down the stretch to win 72-61.
The last two free throws were made by none other than Nelson, who finished with three total points for the second straight game. He added one rebound in each game.
The numbers weren’t at the standard of Nelson’s overall production this season, but he still contributed a few highlight-reel plays and athletic moves on one of the biggest stages in college sports. His first season playing for a team not located in North Dakota has been a success, and he’s become a nationally recognizable name and face.
And now he’s headed to the Sweet 16, where he’ll try to help Alabama achieve just its second Elite Eight appearance in team history. The Tide have never progressed beyond that in March Madness.
Alabama will play No. 1-seeded North Carolina on Thursday at 8:39 p.m.
