Grant Nelson scored 19 of his 23 points in the first half and finished with eight rebounds and four blocked shots to help No. 8 Alabama cruise to a 100-87 victory over No. 25 Illinois on Wednesday night at Birmingham, Ala.
Aden Holloway added 18 points and Labaron Philon recorded 16 points, nine assists and seven rebounds for the Crimson Tide (4-1). Latrell Wrightsell Jr. also had 16 points for Alabama, which reached the 100-point mark for the second time this season.
Will Riley recorded 18 points and nine rebounds and Kylan Boswell had 17 points and seven rebounds for the Fighting Illini (3-1). Kasparas Jakucionis added 15 points and six assists, Tomislav Ivisic contributed 14 points and 10 rebounds and Ben Humrichous scored 11 points for Illinois.
The Crimson Tide shot 52 percent from the field, including 11 of 34 from 3-point range. Alabama All-American Mark Sears went scoreless and missed all five of his field-goal attempts, including four from long distance.
Illinois made 45.1 percent of its shots and was 10 of 30 from behind the arc.
The Illini were within 11 early in the second half before Nelson scored on a layup and Labaron made two free throws to give the Crimson Tide a 61-46 edge with 17:15 remaining in the game.
Aiden Sherrell knocked down a 3-pointer to push the lead to 71-54 with 13:11 left.
The Illini then made a run with eight straight points and moved within nine on Boswell’s 3-pointer with 11:31 to play.
Humrichous buried a trey to bring Illinois within 73-65 with 10:11 left.
However, Alabama quickly restored order, beginning with Derrion Reid’s three-point play. Holloway, Reid and Wrightsell added layups to make it 82-65 with 7:16 remaining.
Riley later scored six straight points to pull the Illini with 86-78 with 3:35 remaining. But Alabama scored the next six points — the span included a steal and layup by Philon — to make it a 14-point margin with 2:19 left.
Nelson made four first-half treys to help the Crimson Tide establish a 52-38 advantage.
Nelson produced Alabama’s first nine points on three 3-pointers. He later scored on a layup to give the Crimson Tide a 19-11 advantage with 15:14 left in the first half.
Alabama later rattled off 13 straight points, and Clifford Omoruyi’s layup capped the burst to make it 36-19 with 8:33 to go before the break.
Jakucionis scored 13 first-half points for Illinois.
–Field Level Media
