Kentucky's second-half run not enough as Wildcats fall 89-74 to Alabama

The Kentucky Wildcats went on the road to Tuscaloosa on Saturday to take on the #14 Alabama Crimson Tide to open SEC Play. Kentucky entered the game 9-4 on the season, and just 2-4 in quad 1 opportunities. The Wildcats were also entering fully healthy for just the second time all season, the other being St. John's, but essentially had 16 minutes of a healthy team in that one due to Jaland Lowe exiting the game early before returning.

On Saturday, Kentucky was able to have an actual full game with their healthy squad, a much better sample size, although that 16 minutes against St. John's was the difference in that one. Well, that small sample size showed itself in Tuscaloosa very quickly. Even with Lowe on the floor, Kentucky couldn't get many good looks, but more importantly, couldn't get stops when they needed them. That was until late in the second half when Alabama had a 5-minute scoring drought up until close to the 4-minute mark in the second half, which was when Kentucky was able to capitalize with a 13-3 run. That cut it to single digits (nine) for the first time since early in the first half, but it still wasn't enough, as they fell 89-74. Despite that run, and with Otega Oweh and Jaland Lowe each having over 20 points in the game, Kentucky turned sloppy, leading to the double-digit loss. Kentucky even had a 4-minute scoring drought following that run to cut it to nine.

Last season in Kentucky's three losses to Alabama, it was three-point shooting that killed them, especially defensively. On Saturday, it was much of the same. That's why Kentucky fell behind early, going down by as much as 21 points in the first half and taking a 16 point deficit into halftime. That poor first half came back to haunt them as despite the run late in the second half, it still wasn't enough to dig out of the big hole. Kentucky got beat by 24 points by threes alone in the first half, really unable to find looks on offense aside from the free throw line, as 28 of their 34 first half points came from inside, 10 from the line. The lack of three-point defense really was the story in this one, as Kentucky helped too much when guys got beat off the dribble allowing Alabama to get to the lane easily, which left looks from three open. You can't do that against an Alabama offense that makes you pay with their shooting. The Tide finished going 15-38 from three, including scoring 89 points. Alabama event broke an SEC record against Kentucky.

Kentucky wasn't able to take advantage in the end, despite Alabama star big man Aiden Sherrell playing just 9 minutes in the first half and never returning, as well as starting big man Taylor Bol Bowen not even playing, either. The Wildcats cut it to nine with 4:35 left, but mistakes continued to cost them late, and resulted in a rough-looking loss. Kentucky even finished the game with no field goals in the last 4:35. The Wildcats relied too much on getting to the line, and you can't do that against a high-powered offense like Alabama. Kentucky seemed to have answered guarding teams like Alabama this off-season through the portal, but that did not come to fruition on Saturday, as they faced more of the same issues against the Tide again. The Wildcats finished the game being outscored by 33 points on threes.

Outside of those four minutes with the late run, it was an ugly day in Tuscaloosa all the way around. Even wiith a healthy team, Kentucky really does have problems that need fixing.