Today the Wildcats were back at home in Rupp Arena to greet the Alabama Crimson Tide. Starting 5 for Kentucky; Teague, Miller, Kidd-Gilchrist, Jones, and Davis.
The first three times down, the ball was fed to Terrence Jones, this resulted in an errant 3 on a kick out to Marquis Teague, and two trips to the foul line where Jones hit one of four. A good strategy that failed in execution saw UK down early.
Cue Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, He stole the ball on the next defensive possession and took it all the way home against 2 defenders. The next time down, KG gets to the line and hits both. An equally good strategy, and even better execution. MKG had 8 points and 3 rebounds in the half.
Kidd-Gillie followed this up with another steal and dished to Doron Lamb for the trey. Let’s just say Rupp arena loves some MKG, they went nuts…timeout Bama.
2 threes for Doron Lamb gave him 6 early points. He led the CATS in scoring and finished the half with 10 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists. He will be the deadliest 6th man in basketball by tourney time.
Not to be out done, Darius Miller blocked a shot and followed that with a 3 of his own. Another 2 from MKG saw UK on a 15-3 run. Miller turned in 6 points on 2 threes of his own and also had 4 assists and a rebound. Both Miller and Lamb’s passes really helped to pick up the slack for Marquis Teague who was solid defensively, but couldn’t get much going on offense. He had 4 points, 1 rebound and no assists.
Terrence Jones looked out of sorts throughout the half, but had a couple of nice defensive plays and even an assist of his own. He had 3 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 blocks in the first period.
Anthony Davis was 1 of 9 from the field for 3 points, but made his presence known on the glass, with 6 rebounds and 1 blocks and 1 steal. Alabama won the rebounding battle, 17-16.
Nick Jacobs came off the bench and led Alabama on a 7-0 run to pull within one just under 8 minutes to go in the half. He drove the ball right at Jones and Davis and consistently got to the rim on them. JayMychal Green also persisted in taking it right at Kentucky’s front line, he finished the half with 10 points and 7 rebounds to lead Alabama.
It was half where the CATS couldn’t quite seem to get the Tide off of them long enough to stretch the game out, save for the one run. Kentucky headed to the locker room to get some space, up 37-32.
