TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama basketball buried then-No. 8 Kentucky after a 9-0 run in the closing minutes of its 102-97 win Saturday. The Crimson Tide separated itself on the road against one of the most high-powered offenses in the country with a quick burst of scoring that included a pair of 3s from guards Labaron Philon and Chris Youngblood.
The Tide dropped 102 points on the road in a second straight game and held off Kentucky’s late advances in a crucial bounce-back win after a woeful performance against Ole Miss. Alabama avoided sloppy turnovers with just 10 and shot a refreshing 38.2% from 3. The offense put the cherry on top with a quick offensive run, which has become a staple of Nate Oats’ Tide teams during his tenure.
“It’s nice to be able to explode quickly… in that two-minute stretch and make a 9-0 run because, against the better teams in this league, you’re gonna have to have a couple explosive moments in the game and try to break away from them or sometimes catch up if you’ve gotten behind,” Oats told reporters Monday. “So it’s nice to know we can do it.”
Alabama hadn’t generated as many quick bursts of scoring coming into Saturday but was able to match Kentucky’s offensive output with separate 10-0 runs in addition to the 9-0 run in the second half. The first run gave Alabama a 13-7 advantage and set the tone in the first half, while the second came midway through the second half. Kentucky was up 58-56 with 15:15 to go. By the 12:33 mark, Alabama had a 66-68 lead.
While Alabama’s offensive production hasn’t disappointed overall, it’s generally been more steadily productive rather than relying on scoring streaks like the ones against Kentucky. EvanMiya.com, a college basketball analytics site measures “kill shots” which are runs of 10-0 or more. Heading into Saturday's matchup, Alabama was only giving up roughly 0.3 kill shots per game but only averaged just over 0.5 on offense. That classifies Alabama as a team that can be relied on to get stops but hasn’t been elite at generating rapid sequences on the offensive end.
The Tide seemed to hit another gear Saturday inside Rupp Arena, which is a scary proposition for Alabama’s upcoming opponents. Alabama was able to maintain its tempo and its scoring streaks were more reminiscent of Oats’ past offenses, which could turn games on its head with a run, no matter what situation it was in.
“It’s nice to have an explosive offense,” Oats said. “We’re figuring out our offense a little bit better. We’re definitely shooting it better at 38%, that’s a lot better than what we had been at 32% from 3 that is. We’re making free throws at a higher clip. So, I think the guys are working to shoot it better. We’re also getting back to getting the O-boards which we abandoned. It wasn’t on purpose, they were supposed to be going to the glass, but that comes with effort and the Ole Miss game it wasn’t there.
Alabama will look to continue its quick bursts of scoring against a Vanderbilt team that’s more than capable of disrupting elite offenses. The Commodores rank No. 8 in the country in opponent turnover percentage. That means Alabama has to take care of the basketball and get stops on defense to the Commodores from capitalizing off takeaways. As SEC play continues, Oats said the next step in Alabama’s ability to create kill shots comes on the defensive end.
“I’d like to see us string together more stops,” Oats said. “Like, maybe we’re not scoring every possession in some of these runs. Maybe we’re stringing together a lot of stops during the runs. So, let’s try to continue to build our defense and get it up to help with some of the runs. That’s kind of the points we’re trying to make but it is nice for our offense to make some of these runs that they made in the Kentucky game.”
Alabama (15-3, 4-1) and Vanderbilt (15-3, 3-2) are set to tipoff at 6 p.m. CT Tuesday inside Coleman Coliseum. The game will be televised on SEC Network.
