Alabama Offense Stalls Out in 66-55 Loss to No. 5 Kentucky

The Crimson Tide went nearly nine minutes without a field goal and only made 10 percent of its three-point shots.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — If college basketball games only lasted 2:20, Saturday night would have been an outstanding game for Alabama. 

Unfortunately for the Crimson Tide against No. 5 Kentucky, there were still 37 minutes of game left to play after taking the early 9-1 lead, and it was the most abysmal offensive performance under head coach Nate Oats. The Wildcats weren't exactly lighting it up on offense either, but had enough for the 66-55 road win. 

This was by far Alabama's lowest scoring output of the season. (The previous low was 65 against Jacksonville State back in December.) It is only the third time they've been held to below 70 points. 

"It's gonna be hard beating anyone shooting 28 percent from the field, let alone Kentucky," Oats said. 

After Alabama shot 0-15 from beyond the arc in the second half against LSU on Jan. 19, Oats said he couldn't see his team have another shooting half that bad. It was close to that on Saturday with 3-30 overall and going 0-14 in the second half before JD Davison finally sunk one with 2:40 to go in the game.

"We did shoot really bad tonight, but I mean it's part of the game, so just to stick with it," said senior guard Keon Ellis, who made two of Alabama's three three-pointers. "I mean there's going to be nights like that, but you've just got to keep getting in the gym and trusting your work."

The Crimson Tide's three starting guards— Ellis, Jahvon Quinerly and Jaden Shackelford— combined to go 6-30 from the floor. As a team, Alabama shot 28.1 percent. 

"They've got to play well for us," Oats said about his trio of guards. "If they don't play well, we can't win. We've got to have them scoring the ball."

Alabama came out of the gate on fire and Coleman Coliseum responded. An  Ellis three-pointer at the 17:37 mark gave the Crimson Tide the 9-1 lead which forced Kentucky coach John Calipari to take a timeout to subdue the boisterous Coleman crowd and slow down the Alabama run. 

The timeout was successful as the Wildcats chipped away at the lead, eventually taking it for the first time at 15-14 with a Davion Mintz dunk. From that point on, it was a back-and-forth half with seven lead changes. The Wildcats took a 33-27 lead into halftime. 

Out of the half, Alabama got a stop on defense and a Juwan Gary dunk on offense to cut the Wildcat lead to 33-29. Alabama would then only score two field goals over the next 12 and half minutes which allowed Kentucky to build a double-digit lead that they would never relinquish. 

The Wildcats went on multiple second-half runs including a 9-0 run to push the lead to 50-37 and an 11-3 run shortly after that gave Kentucky its largest lead at 61-44. 

Kentucky came into the matchup as one of the top-20 rebounding teams in the country. Alabama actually out-rebounded the Wildcats by a 47-44 margin. Part of that was due to the Crimson Tide's inability to make shots, but the team was also aggressive on the boards. 

"This was like a whole gang rebounding kind of game," said forward Charles Bediako. "And I feel like we did good on that part. Guys had each other's backs on rebounding, especially in the first half."

Neither team played particularly well as both the Crimson Tide and Wildcats had 15 turnovers. Ultimately though, Kentucky was more efficient on offense and had 17 points on turnovers compared to 14 for Alabama. 

The freshman Bediako held his own against the nation's leading rebounder in Kentucky's Oscar Tshiebwe. Bediako had 10 points at the half on 4-4 shooting from the floor and finished with 12 points and eight rebounds. The 12 points tied a season high for Bediako. 

"I thought Charles was really good tonight, battled," Oats said. "I thought he played the best out of anybody on our team. I thought he did a great job with Tshiebwe...Charles played well. Charles came ready to play."

Tshiebwe grabbed 15 rebounds which is right at his average, but Alabama held him to 4-13 shooting from the floor. He still finished with 10 points and was one of five Wildcats in double figures including TyTy Washington, who led all scorers with 15. 

Alabama ends its three-game stretch against top-five teams with a 1-2 record and now stands at 14-9 overall and 4-6 in the SEC. Next up for the Crimson Tide is a trip to face Ole Miss on Wednesday night at 7:30. 

"I think we still have to approach every game like it's a big game because we need every win we can get," Ellis said. "I think if we take a deep breath and kind of relax, we might drop one. So I think we just approach it like it's another must-win game."