'Frustrated' cats were not a match for Alabama

Shorthanded Kentucky gave Alabama his best shot before the flood used the wildcats in the second half and on Friday evening in the semi -finals of the Southastern Conference Touramt on Friday evening in the Bridgestone Arena.

The defeat ended Kentucky's three-game victory and gave the Crimson Tide a rare three-goal against the wildcats this season. Alabama (25-7) swept the two games of the regular season and defeated Kentucky for the third time in 20 attempts in the league tournament.

Kentucky had an exciting 85-84 triumph on Oklahoma on Thursday evening and fought to emulate the same success, especially without the floor guide and his leading goal shooters, Otega Oweh, and only played a goal in the first half in a game with Alabama in the first half.

“Congratulations to Alabama, you played a great game tonight,” said Kentucky coach Mark Pope. “They were aggressive tonight and played well and had a good pace. We were frustrated with our performance tonight. “

The wildcats were without Point Guard Lamont Butler, who re -engraved his injured shoulder against the Sooners. Freshman Travis Perry began instead of Butler when Kentucky used a temporary back court from the committee to compensate for the lack of Butler.

Kentucky (22-11) started 16 sales and the Crimson Tide used these Miscues. Alabama scored 29 points in front of these mistakes, 14 in the first half. The crimson tide forced the wild cats in eight sales, which led 14 points to the presentation of 45-37 lead in the transition.

“They live from many things that we didn't do so well today,” said Kentucky Senior Koby Brea. “You are really good at getting out of the transition. And we had a few bad sales that made it very easy for them. “

While sales were a problem, Kentucky could not contain Alabama's hot shooting in the second half. The crimson tide connected with 11 3-converters, including nine in the second half.

Oweh, who scored the game winner at the Summer and 27 points against Oklahoma, needed stitches on the lip after taking a blow on his face in the first half at the beginning of the first half. Oweh scored only eight points and did not reach two figures for the third time this season.

Oweh said the bump to his lip had no role in its lack of production.

“It wasn't one of my better games,” he said. “It (the lip) did not affect (my game) at all.”

Andrew Carr introduced the wildcats with 18 points, followed by Amari Williams at 16 and Perry 11.

Labaron Philon led Alabama with 21 points, followed by Jarin Stevenson with 16 points, while Mark Sears and Mouhamed Dioubate added 13 points each and Aden Holloway ended at 11.

After Alabama's victory over the wildcats, the four best seeds won in the quarter -finals and reached the semi -finals for Saturday.

The top-seed Auburn will play against Tennessee in the first game of a double header, followed by Alabama and Florida. The winners meet in the final for Sunday.

Kentucky will wait for his destination for the NCAA tournament of the next week. The wildcats should be a seed no.3. The pairings will be announced on Sunday.

“We didn't get that far to get that far,” said Carr. “We look in the mirror and try to continue to get better and concentrate on the NCAA tournament.”