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The expression of frustration was painted on John Petty’s face after another unsuccessful possession in the second half.
Alabama’s winning streak was in trouble in what turned into a rock-solid fight at Coleman Coliseum on Tuesday night. The hottest SEC team suddenly lost their attack, and with Kentucky in town, it’s usually a death sentence.
Still, with just over 2,000 scattered around the cavernous arena, Alabama found just enough juice to get over a cold filming night. A 70-59 win came via a 10-0 run when the Wildcats went without a basket on the straight for more than four minutes and maintained Tide’s dream season.
With that, Alabama’s winning streak hit 10 for the first time since 1996, and the first game as a Top 10 team in 14 years didn’t end in disaster.
Kentucky (5-10, 4-4 SEC) took a 54-52 lead with 4:27 left over Davion Mintz’s 3-pointer from the corner, but wouldn’t score until the last minute. Alabama, meanwhile, mustered enough offense after playing 3 for 14 on the pitch to start the second half. It was a staggering lack of offense for an Alabama team that had scored 105 a week earlier in a 30-point victory at LSU.
RELATED: Look back at Alabama’s 70-59 victory over Kentucky
Alabama’s 70 points were the fewest since their 65-56 loss to Clemson on December 12.
Alabama went 14-3, 9-0 in the SEC after winning every game since losing to Western Kentucky on Dec.19. This is the first time that Alabama have swept Kentucky since the 1988-89 season.
Jaden Shackelford’s 21s led a Tide attack that was just 1 for 4 from the perimeter after halftime. Herbert Jones had 13 points, mostly making 9 of 10 fouls. The Tide supplemented their lack of shooting from the field by getting 22 for 26 from the foul line in the second half.
Herbert Jones said Kentucky had a good game plan to stop an Alabama offense averaging 13 and 3s per game in the winning streak.
“So we had to find ways to attack it,” said Jones, still slowed down by a crash Saturday against Mississippi State, but narrowly missing a triple-double with 13 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.
The six successful 3s were the fewest since losing 3 for 22 in the loss of Clemson and the 20 attempts tied a season.
Alabama coach Nate Oats said they let a few too many open jumpers pass and “pushed the ball too far” towards the rim.
“I thought we saw a little bit of frustration from some of our guys who usually do hits,” Oats said. Going from twenty-three 3s two games ago to just six goals is a game we could easily have lost.
The game started with the flavor of last week’s 105-75 blowout at LSU with Alabama leading 13-5. He made the first five shots – three 3-pointers – with Josh Primo scoring seven of the first 10 points. Juwan Gary came off the bench for four quick runs to the rim as Alabama looked to score again at will.
With forward Jordan Bruner still with a knee injury, James Rojas still coming back from a missed week and Alex Reese punching, Oats said red-shirted rookie Gary played huge minutes against Kentucky. He finished with six points, but played crucial minutes in the paint with a thin front line playing the Kentucky greats.
Things took a turn after the warm start when turnovers scrambled the action the rest of the half. The Tide missed seven straight 3s and was on a 1-1 skid when Jahvon Quinerly beat the halftime buzzer to put the Tide 35-32 at the break.
Alabama had gone four minutes without a basket at one point as Kentucky started a slow-bleeding 8-0 run to reduce what was a nine-point advantage to 17-16. The first tie came when Davion Mintz circus 3 points beat the shot clock with 1:36 remaining in the half to score 30-30.
Kentucky took their first lead with 12:49 left, but never took a two-point advantage. Oats thanked visitors for showing their hearts on Tuesday evening.
“Obviously they’re struggling and I thought they brought it up tonight,” Oats said. “They could have easily folded when we jumped on it early and they didn’t. They fought back.
Alabama comes out of the SEC play Saturday with a road game in Oklahoma as part of the SEC / Big 12 Challenge. Oats said it would be slow to watch too many tapes on the Sooners, at least in the short term.
“I have to do a lot of cleaning up this game because it was disastrous,” said Oats, “especially offensively. “
Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on twitter @ByCasagrande Or on Facebook.
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