Amari Allen posted 24 points and five assists, Aden Holloway scored 18 points and No. 18 Alabama fought past Seton Hall 82-76 on Friday in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Cole Cloer added 12 points as the Crimson Tide (4-0) prevailed against their first power-conference opponent of the season. Alabama ended the first half on a 16-0 run and led by 13 with 3:38 to play before the Pirates (3-1) used a 10-0 stretch to make the Tide sweat the result.
Ilay Dolinski led Seton Hall with 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting off the bench. Elijah Fisher added 14 points, Trey Parker had 12 and Devin Williams provided 10 plus seven rebounds.
Seton Hall made it a nine-point game when two sets of free throws brought it within 77-68 with 2:48 left. Allen was fouled and missed both foul shots, but he blocked Mihailo Petrovic’s driving attempt at the other end.
However, Alabama’s Brandon Garrison clanked a pair of foul shots and lost a turnover on the rebound attempt. Petrovic and Parker buried 3-pointers on consecutive trips to whittle the deficit to 77-74 with 57 seconds left.
But the Crimson Tide were able to salt it away from the foul line, with Holloway providing the final four points on free throws.
Garrison finished with eight points and seven boards for Alabama, which let Seton Hall score 25 points off the Tide’s 17 turnovers.
The Pirates trailed by single digits for much of the first half until Simeon Wilcher scored on a fast break off Petrovic’s steal to put the visitors ahead 22-20.
They built their lead to 28-22 when Dolinski converted two baskets five seconds apart thanks to an Alabama turnover on an inbounds play.
But Seton Hall went scoreless for the final five minutes. The Tide’s 16-0 run began with four free throws and Jaxon Richardson’s dunk before Allen rang up two layups, one of them a three-point play, and a triple. Holloway pivoted multiple times in the paint before getting off his jumper at the buzzer to cap the run and make it 38-28 at halftime.
The Tide led by as many as 17 points following London Jemison’s 3-pointer with 17:19 to play. Allen fed Keitenn Bristow for an alley-oop dunk a minute later, and Cloer added his own alley-oop at the 10:23 mark, but the Pirates clawed back.
Seton Hall got within six points on two occasions before Alabama grew it to 77-64 with 3:38 to go.
