Alabama PG Collin Sexton injures eye before matchup vs. Arizona

The Arizona Wildcats will host one of the top players in the country Saturday when they face Alabama and its stellar freshman point guard Collin Sexton.

At least that’s the plan.

Sexton suffered an eye injury in Alabama’s game vs. Rhode Island on Wednesday that forced him to exit in the first half.

But Sexton returned with roughly six minutes left in the second half to help the Tide stave off the Rams 68-64 in Tuscaloosa.

“He had a little blood on the top of his eye, so we’re just saying eye injury right now,” head coach Avery Johnson told the media afterward. “He basically couldn’t see when we took him to the locker room.”

Sexton finished with 11 points on 3-7 shooting in 17 minutes, and most importantly he prevented the Tide’s offense from falling completely apart.

Alabama (7-2) committed 24 turnovers in the win, and was outscored 39-36 in the second half.

Seeing that Sexton was able to return in Wednesday’s game, he should be good to go Saturday against Arizona.

While that would make life more difficult for the Wildcats, it is not too often that an opposing player of Sexton’s caliber ventures into McKale Center, so it would be a shame if he didn’t suit up.

Sexton, projected to be the ninth pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, is averaging 20.8 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game this season with a fantastic shooting line of .481/.464/.716.

He is so good that he almost led Alabama to a come-from-behind win over Minnesota, despite being outnumbered three to five on the court. No, really. That’s a thing that happened.

A litany of ejections and injuries left the Tide short-handed, but Sexton still managed to score 40 points on 22 shots.

That was fun and Saturday’s game will be too if he is able to play.

Follow Ryan Kelapire on Twitter at @RKelapire