Deandre Ayton set season-highs in both points (29) and rebounding (18) to lead the Arizona Wildcats to an 88-82 win over Alabama on Saturday at McKale Center.
Allonzo Trier had 25 points while making 14 of 16 free throws to help the Wildcats overcome the Crimson Tide and star freshman Collin Sexton, who had 30 points including a buzzer-beating 3-pointer just before halftime.
Arizona forward Rawle Alkins made his season debut after suffering a broken foot on Sept. 26. He finished with seven points and two rebounds in 22 minutes.
Arizona shot 51.8 percent from the field while holding Alabama to 39.3 percent but never pulled away because the Wildcats made only 22 of 35 free throws (62.9 percent).
The Crimson Tide made 24 of 28 free throws despite entering the game shooting just 63 percent from the line. Alabama also scored 11 points on 12 Arizona turnovers.
The win moved Arizona to 7-3 and gave the Wildcats an argument for reinstatement in the AP Top 25 poll after also beating seventh-ranked Texas A&M in Phoenix on Tuesday.
Alabama dropped to 7-3.
Arizona held a 79-76 lead heading into the final 2:21, after Ayton broke a 76-76 tie with a layup and 1 of 2 free throws. From there, Ayton scored twice to give Arizona a 83-77 lead and the Wildcats hung on from there.
The teams stayed within a basket of each other through the middle of the second half, and while Arizona pulled ahead 74-68 after two free throws from Trier, Sexton brought the Tide back within two points, 76-74, on a pair of free throws and a coast-to-coast layup with 4:43 remaining.
After taking a 40-38 lead at halftime, Alabama went ahead by six early in the second half, getting two free throws from Sexton and a pair of baskets from center Donta Hall, who went coast-to-coast for a layup.
Sexton later hit a 3-pointer to give Alabama a 51-45 lead but picked up his third foul on the Wildcats’ ensuing possession, and a jumper from Brandon Randolph cut the Tide’s lead to 51-49.
Alabama went ahead 58-53 on a 3-pointer from Sexton at the top of the key, prompting UA coach Sean Miller to call a timeout with 12:28 left. Sexton had 19 points at that point on 5-for-10 shooting and Alabama hit 7 of its first 11 shots after halftime.
Three-pointers from Allonzo Trier and Brandon Randolph gave Arizona a brief 59-58 lead before Daniel Giddens dunked on Alabama’s next play.
At the end of the first half, Sexton hit a fallaway 3-pointer just before the buzzer to give the Crimson Tide a 40-38 halftime lead.
Ayton led Arizona with 15 points and nine rebounds in the first half, while the Wildcats shot nearly 50 percent from the field but hit only 6 of 12 free throws.
While Arizona outrebounded Alabama 21-14, the Tide committed only four turnovers. Alabama shot just 39.4 percent from the field overall but made 6 of 12 3-pointers, including Sexton's last-second 3-pointer over the defense of Parker Jackson-Cartwright.
While Alkins didn’t start, he checked in to a wild ovation at the 17:06 mark of the first half. He didn’t score until 8:59 was left in the half, but had two assists in his first five minutes played, including a dish from under the basket back to Dusan Ristic, who made the layup.
Alkins’ first score was a free throw that gave the Wildcats their biggest lead of the first half, 24-13. Arizona built the lead in part by keeping Alabama under 40-percent shooting for the first 13 minutes of the game and keeping Alabama's Sexton scoreless for the first 11:45 of the game before he scored on a driving layup.
But Sexton hit all four free throws he took in a 57 second span late in the half to help tie the game up at 26 before a 3-pointer from Trier gave Arizona a 29-26 lead. The Wildcats then entered the final three minutes of the half up 36-31 after a 3-pointer from Randolph.
With 53 seconds left, Alabama’s Dazon Ingram hit a 3-pointer to cut Arizona’s lead to 38-37 and Ayton missed a jump shot before Sexton hit his buzzer-beater.
