Kentucky's Andrew Carr and Jaxson Robinson trying to stop Grant Nelson. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Alabama was the first team to 100 points and it was just enough to hold off Kentucky Saturday in a showdown between the two top-scoring teams in the Southeastern Conference.
Coming off a disappointing 74-64 loss to Ole Miss earlier this week, the fourth-ranked Crimson Tide took the loss out on Kentucky and handed the eighth-ranked Wildcats their first home loss of the season with a 102-97 triumph.
“It was definitely a bounce-back from the game on Tuesday and quite a win today,” Alabama coach Nate Oats said. “It was a really good team that we beat and I think we did a really good job.”
The setback was Kentucky’s first loss to a Top-15 opponent in six attempts this season and was coach Mark Pope’s first home loss of his tenure.
“Our guys fought and they battled — we just didn’t play that well,” Pope said. “We still scored 97 points. We just didn’t play great.”
Playing its third consecutive home game against a Top 15 opponent, Kentucky couldn’t keep pace with the Alabama tandem of Grant Nelson with 25 points and preseason SEC Player of the Year candidate Mark Sears, who scored 24 points. The two players combined for 49 points, with Nelson adding 11 rebounds in the post.
Despite Alabama’s one-two punch of Nelson and Sears, the Wildcats placed seven players in double figures, led by leading scorer Otega Oweh, who poured in a season-high 21 points. Lamont Butler, who was listed as questionable prior to the game, finished with 17 points and dished out eight assists.
Pope praised the effort by Butler, who had been held out of practice after getting banged up in an 81-69 win over Texas A&M earlier this week.
“I thought he gave a really heroic effort and played well,” Pope said. “We need to get him healthy as quickly as we can.”
Amari Williams had a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds, followed by Jaxson Robinson with 11 and Ansley Almonor and Koby Brea with 10 points apiece.
The two teams combined for 24 3-pointers, but Alabama was clutch, with Sears connecting on four of his team’s 13 treys in the contest.
“We can be so much better,” Pope said of the loss. “I think that’s the biggest thing. Alabama’s a terrific team and they’re a great team and not taking anything away from Alabama. We just left so much on the table. There’s so much room for us to grow.”
The Wildcats (14-4, 3-2 SEC) were outrebounded 42-38 and were whistled for 25 personal fouls, most of which were in the post. Alabama (15-3, 4-1) made 29-of-34 free throws, compared to the hosts’ 16-for-20 clip at the charity stripe.
Pope said Alabama’s 15 offensive rebounds, 3-point shooting and free throw attempts were a perfect “trifecta” and singled out Alabama’s toughness at the rim as a big reason behind the loss.
“The glass hurt us two different ways,” Pope said. “One, it hurt us getting bullied at the rim, and two — errors on long shots and long rebound scrambles where … it felt like we were a little bit late. I don’t think we won the 50-50 ball game.”
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NEXT GAME: Kentucky at Vanderbilt, 2:30 p.m. Saturday. TV/Radio: ESPN, UK Radio Network.
8 Responses
Nelson owned Carr and Almonor. Carr and Perry were pretty much no shows. Robinson and Brea had off games too. We can’t have that much absenteeism and expect to beat the better teams.
Nelson got by pushing off more than should have
This was a winnable ballgame with full team buy-in, and could have been for other teams we lost to also. There is still much individual play, and we can’t score at rim or stop anyone from scoring. That has been the theme for our L’s.
Too much individual play.
Robinson got 25 minutes & had:
1 rebound
O assists
0 steals
0 blocks
TEAM play does not produce those 0’s
He only contributed by waiting to get to shoot.
He missed his 1st 3 shots in just a few minutes to start the game, taking 3 of UK’s 1st 4 shots. It set a poor start for everyone.
A lot of failures but this tops the list
“Hard Work Beats Talent When Talent Doesn’t Play Hard” thats Robinson problem.Coach should have sat him on the bench when he showed he wasn’t going to be playing hard. And this isn’t the first time he’s done this. Coach seems to be babying him. He may be one of those guys that needs a coach that will get in his face and Coach has that doctor’s personality that is not working on him playing harder.
Robinson was not dialed in on defense or rebounding. Almonor should have got the start with Carr playing relief minutes. Perry was overwhelmed, Chandler should have got some PT. Brea cannot get his own shot. Bama simply wanted the win more and believed they were the better team. We still don’t trust Pope’s system and revert back to hero ball to often.
Coach seems to be babying more than Jax. We have to have Pope, but we don’t have to have the worst D in the SEC…let’s "getter done coach".
How many teams lose a game when they score 97 points? We either have to get better on the defensive end or start shooting more 3s.