FINAL: Kentucky runs out of gas against Alabama, falls 99-70 in SEC Tournament quarterfinals

With less than 24 hours of rest and down a starting point guard, Kentucky simply didn’t have the horses to keep up with Alabama.

After taking down Oklahoma in an SEC Tournament thriller the night before, the Wildcats were blown out Friday night in Nashville. It was tight early, but Alabama’s offense set Bridgestone Arena on fire in the second half as they cruised to a 99-70 victory in the quarterfinals. The 29-point defeat was Kentucky’s worst in program history in an SEC Tournament game and the worst-ever against the Crimson Tide.

Andrew Carr paced the ‘Cats with 18 points on 8-10 shooting. Amari Williams wasn’t far behind with 16 points, seven rebounds, and four assists. Travis Perry, who started in place of the injured Lamont Butler, rounded out UK’s double-digit scorers with 11 points. Kentucky struggled shooting the ball all game, finishing 37.5 percent from the field and 5-19 (26.3 percent) from beyond the arc.

Alabama was powered by 21 points from Labaron Philon as five Crimson Tide players reached double-digits. After a poor shooting performance from deep in the opening half, Nate Oats’ crew hit a groove. Alabama shot over 50 percent from the floor for the night while connecting on 11 three-pointers.

Both teams opened the night flying up and down the floor, shots going up left and right. Alabama threw the first punch with a quick 12-7 lead before Kentucky countered to tie things up at 14-14 a little over six minutes into the game. The Tide missed its first nine three-pointers (finishing 2-13 from deep in the opening half), but far too many early turnovers for UK made that a moot point.

Carr, who was off to a great start, would pick up a couple of fouls, sending him to the bench for a good chunk of time. To make matters worse, Otega Oweh was rocked in the face by an Alabama player’s elbow and immediately went to the locker room to clean up the blood. He would miss roughly five minutes of game time before coming back. Carr was tagged with his third foul later in the half, too.

But all things considered, this banged-up Kentucky group continued to keep pace with the Tide before halftime. Even when Alabama appeared on the brink of blowing this game open, the ‘Cats found ways to respond. Kentucky trailed 45-38 at the break as Williams led the way with 12 points, followed by 10 more from Perry. Those two were a combined 11-12 from the free throw line after 20 minutes of action.

The outside shots began to fall for Alabama out of the break though. Once that happened, it was game over. The Tide knocked in a trio of triples before the first media timeout of the second half to take a 13-point lead, its largest of the night at the time. Pope was forced to call a timeout. Several trips to the free throw line gave Kentucky some easy points, but Alabama began to hit the afterburners. With 12:30 left in the game, it was a 69-52 deficit for UK. The difference soon grew to 20 points as the ‘Cats began to run out of juice.

Alabama’s lead ballooned to as many as 30 points deep into the second half. After a rough shooting start beyond the arc, the Tide went 9-16 from deep after halftime. It got so bad down the stretch, Alabama walk-on Max Scharnowski entered the game with three minutes to go. Kentucky was finally put out of its misery right before Alabama could reach the 100-point threshold.

This loss likely won’t do much to impact Kentucky’s seeding, but a blowout like this going into the Big Dance is never ideal. The ‘Cats will now wait for Selection Sunday to learn their path in the NCAA Tournament.