Alabama hosted Seton Hall on Friday night at Coleman Coliseum and had to hold
on to win 82-76. Bama improved to 4-0 with the win while the Pirates fell to 3-1. The Tide started fast, then slowed down, then poured it on, before slipping at the end and letting the visitors back in the game.
Coach Nate Oats used a starting lineup consisting of Amari Allen, Aden Holloway, London Jamison, Drew Fielder, and Brandon Garrison. Seton Hall coach Shaheen Holloway sent out Simeon Welcher, Mihailo Welcher, Elijah
Fisher, Devin Williams, and Roddie Anderson III for the open tip.
Garrison quickly scored down low for a 2-0 lead, Fielder hit 2-3 free throws and Allen knocked down a three for a 7-2 lead with 17:40 left in the half. Holloway hit from deep, followed by Fielder and Allen both making a pair of free throws for a 14-6 lead with 14:46 on the clock.
With 8:17 remaining in the stanza Seton Hall took the lead a 18-17. Allen hit from three again to regain the lead before the Pirates grabbed a 28-22 lead at the 4:58 mark. The Tide went on a 16-0 run to close the half, led by Allen. Holloway got in the lane and contorted his body to knock down a floater as time ran out in the period, giving Bama the 38-28 lead a the break.
Alabama shot 11-30 for 37% in the half, including 4-13 for 31% from deep. Bama made 12-15 at the free throw line for 80%. The Tide had 29 rebounds with 11 of them being offensive. After tying a school record with 30 assists in their last game, Bama could only manage four first half assists, to go with four blocks, two steals, and commited 12 turnovers. Allen was the big gun with 18 points, helped by 3-3 from deep, while adding two rebounds, an assist, and a block. Holloway scored seven points and made his only three point shot. Allen and Holloway were 4-4 combined from three while the rest of their teammates combined to go 0-9. Garrison played well down low with four points, six rebounds, and an assist.
Seton Hall was 12-36 for 33%, 2-12 from three for 17%, and made 2-2 at the free throw line. The Pirates had only 15 rebounds with six offensively, with seven assists, three blocks, seven steals, and gave the ball away five times. Ilya Dolinski led the team with eight points, followed by Trey Parker with five.
Bama sent out the same starting five for the second half, and kept the scoring steak alive, reaching 20 in a row before Seton Hall scored. Garrison notched the first two baskets of the period, and the Tide had built a lead of 42-28. Allen and Cole Cloer both hit a pair of free throws and Jemsion knocked down a three for his only basket of the game and with 17:20 left the Tide led 49-32.
The lead hovered around 12-15 points up until the 14:55 mark when Garrison was called for a technical foul-for some unknown reason. With 12 minutes left the Pirates had closed to within 11 points at 57-46. Seton Hall kept on punching (sometimes literally)and stayed within striking distance. With 6:51 left a three pointer by SH closed the margin to six at 66-60. Holloway hit a pair of freebies and Cloer knocked down down a three !!!!- from the top of the key for a 71-60 lead with 5:45 left. The lead was 11 with 3:58 on the clock, but an 0-5 stretch at the free throw line by Bama tightened things up. The Pirates made the score 77-71 with 1:21 left, and then 77-74 with 55 seconds left. The Tide finally got the ball in Holloways hands and the senior made 4-4 at the stripe to close about the game with an 82-76 victory for the home team.
In the second half Bama shot 12-23 for 52%, 3-8 for 38% from three, and 17-23 for 74% at the free throw line. Overall the Tide finished 23-53 for 43%, 7-21 for 33% from behind the arc, and 29-38 for 76% at the free throw line. Alabama totaled 41 rebounds, 14 offensive , 11 assists, seven blocks, eight steals, and 17 turnovers. Allen played a season high 33 minutes and scored 24 points on 6-10 shooting with three rebounds, five assists, and two steals. Holloway had a season high 18 points, buoyed by 8-8 shooting at the line, in a team high 35 minutes. Cloer had his best game scoring 12 points with five rebounds in 23 minutes. Interestingly other than Cloer all the freshmen players had their minutes severely cut. Tarris Bouie played only four minutes, Qayden Samuels garnered 10 minutes, Anderson Diaz saw eight minutes of action, while Jaxon Richardson played 11 minutes- with most being in crunch time. Oats said after the game that Cloer “is about the right stuff” and Richardson was giving a lot of effort rebounding and defending, and if you do that you will play more.
Seton Hall was 14-33 for 42% including 5-14 from three and 15-16 on free throws in the second half. Overall the Pirates hit 26-69 for 38%, 7-26 for 27% from three and 17-18 for 94% on free throws. SH crashed the boards in he second half and finished with 36 total with 16 on the offensive end. The Pirates had 13 assists, five blocks, eight steals, and committed 12 turnovers. Dolinski led the team with 15 points and added five rebounds. Elijah Fisher had 14 points, five rebounds and, three assists, and two steals. Parker finished with 12 and Williamson had 10 points, seven rebounds, and blocked four shots.
This game was a step up in competition for the Tide, but this game shouldn’t have been this close. The Pirates mucked things up, playing hard and very physical. After a fantastic shooting game against Oakland on Monday, the shots were not falling tonight. Allen and Holloway took over and made sure the Tide would not lose. Garrison had a nice game going until he got in foul trouble. Cloer and Richardson contributed their best games of their young Alabama careers. With all that being said the team did what they had to do to win, when not playing at their best.
Next up is a homecoming for Antoine Pettway and his Kennesaw State team. Pettway, the head man at KSU will come back to his Alma mater Tuesday night for a 6 p.m. CT game, The SEC Network Plus will have the broadcast.
RollTide
