TUSCALOOSA, Ala. โ Arizona trailed by as many as 19 points in the first half and wiped that deficit out completely, yet its poor early shooting remained to haunt them in a 76-73 loss to Alabama at Coleman Coliseum on Sunday afternoon.
Alabama freshman Kira Lewis hit a 3-pointer with 12 seconds left to give the Tide what proved to be an insurmountable 73-68 lead.
The Wildcats had a 3-pointer from Brandon Randolph with 7.5 seconds but Alabama's John Petty made 1 of 2 free throws after a quick Arizona foul. The Crimson Tide fouled Justin Coleman in the backcourt with 5.3 seconds left, taking away the Wildcatsโ chance to hit a tying 3-pointer, and Coleman hit both free throws to make it 74-73.
The Wildcats then fouled Lewis, and he made both free throws for the final score. A last-second heave from Coleman at the three-quarter-court mark was short and left of the basket.
The loss dropped Arizona to 7-3 while Alabama improved to 6-3 after suffering consecutive losses.
MORE: Sloppy Arizona Wildcats fall way behind early, lose to Alabama in Tuscaloosa
Chase Jeter led Arizona with 19 points and nine rebounds while Randolph added 17. Williams scored 16 points and made 4 of 7 from 3-point range.
In his return to Alabama, where he spent the first two seasons of his college career, Coleman had eight points, five rebounds and six assists.
Alabama held a 70-66 lead entering the final two minutes, but Jeter drew a foul inside and later scored with 1:19 remaining to cut it to two points entering the final minute of the game. With Alabama leading 40-68 with just 29.7 seconds left, UA coach Sean Miller called the Wildcatsโ final timeout.
The Wildcats trailed at 33-14 with 7:05 remaining in the first half. Arizona went on a 14-5 run over the final 6:12 before halftime, then added another 11-0 run to pull within 39-36 just more than a minute into the second half. The Wildcats started the second half by getting a bank shot from Randolph to fall while Williams and Jeter scored inside.
After making just 4 of 14 3-pointers in the first half, the Wildcats warmed up from beyond the arc. Williams hit two and Randolph another to pull Arizona within 47-45. But at the same time, the Wildcats were having trouble hitting the easy ones: When Alabama held a 53-45 lead with 12:22 to go, the Wildcats were just 3 of 10 from inside the arc for the second half โ and 3 of 5 outside.
But Jeter scored inside and hit an and-one foul to cut the Tideโs lead to 53-48, and the Wildcats pulled even closer later in the second half. They went on a 10-0 run to take a 55-53 lead and the game stayed close the rest of the way.
In the first half, Arizona shot just 31.6 percent while Alabama took a 39-30 halftime lead.
The Wildcats were also outrebounded 23-21, and allowed the Crimson Tide to shoot 46.9 overall and make 4 of 9 3-pointers.
Alex Reese and Galin Smith, both coming off the bench, scored eight points each to lead Alabama in first half scoring. Brandon Randolph had seven points to lead Arizona in scoring but shot just 3 of 12 from the field.
Coleman missed all three shots he took in the first half.
Both teams shot poorly in the gameโs opening minutes, but 3-pointers from Williams and Emmanuel Akot put Arizona ahead 10-6 before the Tide began to take over. Alabama scored nine straight points to take a 19-10 lead, the last bucket on a layup from Britton Johnson, who stole the ball from Coleman and took it coast to coast.
But after Arizona took a 12-10 lead with 11:39 on a layup in the post from Ryan Luther, the Tide went on its 23-2 run while keeping the Wildcats scoreless for over five minutes while they missed eight straight field goals. Jeter also missed both free throws he took with 6:40 left.
By the time Miller called a timeout with 10:38 left in the half, Arizona had made just 6 of 16 field goals and allowed Alabama to score six points on four Wildcats turnovers.
Arizona managed to cut Alabamaโs lead slightly toward the end of the half, getting seven points in just over a minute from Randolph to pull within 37-25 with 4:17 left in the half.
They later cut it to 39-30 on a 3-pointer from Williams with 1:06 left and successfully defended Alabama over the final 13 seconds of the half, carrying some momentum into halftime.
