Nate Oats and his Alabama men’s basketball team will drop to 4-6 in SEC competition this season after a 66-55 loss to Kentucky at home. The Crimson Tide was hoping to avoid going two games below .500 in a key home game inside Coleman Coliseum on a Saturday evening.
The Tide couldn’t buy a three-pointer in this game against No. 5 Kentucky, their second home game against a top-five team in seven days (Alabama won the first last Saturday against Baylor).
It was ugly offensively from the start as the Wildcats defense left more than a dozen guys wide open for the Tide, but the shots just weren’t falling. Alabama went just 3-30 from 3PT range. Three-pointers weren’t the only shots missing for the Tide, however, as they went just 28% overall from the floor.
Charles Bediako looked good in the first half, but with three fouls early in the second half, he was rendered ineffective through much of the closing half. He led the Tide in both scoring and on the boards with 12 points and eight rebounds.
The talented backcourt consisting of Jaden Shackelford, Jahvon Quinerly and JD Davison combined for just 19 points, with just one three-ball dropping for the trio with Davison tallying the only one.
Kentucky had five players in double-digits with freshman TyTy Washington leading the way for the Wildcats with 15 points. Oscar Tschiebwe tallied 10 points but recorded another double-double by pulling down 15 rebounds.
Kentucky shot 40% from the floor and went 4-11 from deep as the Wildcats will improve to 19-4 on the season and 8-2 in conference play.
The Crimson Tide dropped to 14-9 on the campaign and 4-6 in SEC play.
Next up for Alabama is a road game against Ole Miss in Oxford on Wednesday night.
Stay tuned to Roll Tide Wire for all the latest on the Crimson Tide!
Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Layne Gerbig on Twitter @LayneG_29.