The No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide picked up an enormous 102-97 highway win over No. 8 Kentucky on Saturday afternoon.
For Kentucky, this marks its first loss towards a ranked opponent this season after successful every of its first 5 video games.
The second-best offense within the nation (88.7 PPG) coming into Saturday, per TeamRankings, continued to excel by capturing 47.9% from the ground and 40.7% (11-for-27) from deep.
Junior guard Otega Oweh led the way in which with 21 factors and broke free for this fast-break slam with 18:20 remaining to place Kentucky up 52-49.
A significant space Kentucky continues to battle in is protection.
The Crimson Tide shot 44.8% and hit 13 threes within the recreation. Senior ahead Grant Nelson had a team-high 25 factors (7-for-13 FG) whereas senior guard Mark Sears had 24. Freshman guard Labaron Philon put up 15 factors and made three long-range photographs, together with this jumper with 2:55 left to offer the Crimson Tide a 90-81 lead.
That is the seventh time this season that Kentucky has allowed 80 or extra factors and the second time in convention play that an opponent has reached the century mark towards the Wildcats. Fouls didn’t assistance on Saturday, both, because the staff dedicated 25 whole whereas Oweh and senior middle Amari Williams fouled out.
With 5 gamers averaging double-figure scoring, Kentucky has the steadiness and expertise to make a deep run when March rolls round. Solely three gamers are averaging 5 or extra factors off the bench, so staying out of foul bother and getting extra constant stops defensively goes to be essential towards its success the remainder of the way in which.
The Wildcats barely misplaced the rebounding benefit, 42-38, which led to many second-chance alternatives for the Crimson Tide. That should enhance as properly if the Wildcats are going to win extra shut video games.
Saturday represented an enormous turnaround for Alabama (15-3, 4-1 SEC) after capturing simply 25% from three-point vary in a loss to No. 21 Ole Miss on Tuesday. After dealing with three straight ranked opponents, the Crimson Tide head into back-to-back video games towards unranked groups, starting with Vanderbilt on Tuesday.
Kentucky (14-4, 3-2 SEC) will get per week off earlier than returning to the courtroom at Vanderbilt subsequent Saturday.
