Early on in the 2023-24 season, Alabama basketball couldn’t win close games.

“Feels like we lost every game by like five points,” Forward Grant Nelson said Thursday. “All those tough opponents like Purdue, Clemson, Arizona, Creighton.”

Fast forward to Thursday evening, and the Crimson Tide seems to have expelled that evil. UA pulled off its crown jewel Thursday, beating top-seeded North Carolina 89-87 in Los Angeles to move to the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight.

Alabama did it by dispelling its problems from early in the season. Namely on defense.

The Tide got key stops late in the game, something that wasn’t happening when it lost those close ones in non-conference play.

“We knew we had to guard,” Nelson said. “I think that’s been the biggest thing for these last three games is really sitting down and not giving the other team easy buckets, making every bucket tough.”

Head coach Nate Oats has been bold in his non-conference scheduling through the years. Alabama doesn’t face many cupcake opponents early in the season, and for 2023-24 edition, UA went through a murderer’s row of bigs, including Purdue’s Zach Edey.

They gave the Tide fits. But they also taught lessons that were on display Thursday against the Tar Heels.

“We were fighting with those good teams the beginning and then in the final 12 minutes, we would fall apart,” Jarin Stevenson said. “Now later in the season, we learned from that, and now we’re getting those dubs.”

The low point for Alabama’s defense came when it gave up 117 points in a loss at Kentucky. Even though it scored 95 in that game, the struggles negated an excellent offense.

But sometime before the tournament, something clicked and the Tide started showing a pulse on the other end of the floor. When stops are needed late, it’s no longer a foregone conclusion that UA’s opponents are going to score.

“He just put it into perspective,” Alabama guard Aaron Estrada said. “Like, ‘If y’all want to be an elite team and you want to go far, y’all got to make the decision on whether y’all want to play defense or y’all don’t. If not, we’re going to be an average team with a great offense, and if we can guard just a little bit, we can get to where we are now.’”

Things likely won’t get easier in the Elite Eight and beyond. Clemson was one of the teams that beat the Crimson Tide close in non-conference play, scoring an 85-77 win in Tuscaloosa.

But compared to earlier in the season, Alabama is confident. It knows it can get the big stops, make the plays it needs to late for a chance to make the first Final Four in school history.

“Clemson is good,” Oats said after the win. “Some of their guys killed us. So we’ve got to get a better game plan. I thought the coaching staff, the assistants, our analytics crew did an unbelievable job getting us ready for this game. I thought we had spot-on game plan. We’ve got to do the same thing for Clemson. We won’t be getting a lot of sleep tonight.”

Alabama and Clemson will play Saturday in Los Angeles, with tip scheduled for 7:49 p.m. CT.