The 3-pointer: Three takeaways after Alabama's 78-52 win against Kentucky

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — For the second time since the 1986-87 season, Alabama improves to 3-0 to start SEC play after its blowing out Kentucky 78-52 on Saturday.

Here are three takeaways from the No. 7 Crimson Tide's victory against the Wildcats.

With all eyes fixated on Brandon Miller, it was Mark Sears who stole the show.

While he was held without a basket in the first half, the junior displayed his defensive intensity instead, tallying a team-high four rebounds, four assists and four steals in 18 minutes. He pestered Kentucky's Cason Wallace and Sahvir Wallace into costly errors as the Wildcats recorded seven turnovers in the first half alone.

In the second half, Sears found his shooting touch scoring 13 of his 16 points on 4-of-10 shooting. During Alabama's 11-3 run to open up the second half, Sears scored eight points in the run which pushed the Crimson Tide's lead to 20 points.

His efforts resulted in Sears' first hard hat award of the season beating out Charles Bediako by half a point according to Oats.

"It's a great group of guys," Sears said. "We're all very unselfish and it's easy to play with these dudes."

It's rare for Alabama to maintain a lead for an entire game, but the No. 7 team in the country did just that against Kentucky.

While the offense got the Crimson Tide the lead in the first half, it was the defense that preserved it even with two scoring droughts that lasted more than three minutes apiece. The Wildcats shot just 29% from the floor while Alabama held Kentucky's top scorers in reigning national player of the year Oscar Tshiebwe and Cason Wallace scoreless through the first 20 minutes.

As a result, the Wildcats relied on Sahvir Wheeler and Antonio Reeves who combined for 20 of the team's 27 points in the first half.

"We shouldn't have been down 11 at the half," Kentucky coach John Calipari said. "We screwed up the first half. We did what we wanted to do but we missed every shot. You can't have your starters go 3-for-27, that you're counting on to make baskets. ... I just don't even know if I want to look at the tape."

In the second half, the Wildcats went 11-for-39 to finish with 52 points which is now the lowest-scoring total for them this season. It's also Alabama's largest win against Kentucky since the Crimson Tide defeated the Wildcats 51-17 in 1933-34.

There's a notion in basketball that scoring comes in waves, and while that may be true, Alabama showed that the proverbial wave can last as long as a team wants it to.

Alabama opened the second half with an 11-point lead coming out of the half and quickly extended it to 20 and then 30 points as the final 20 minutes drew to a close.

Brandon Miller and Sears had huge second-half performances, tallying 12 and 13 points respectively to secure the blowout. Saturday also serves as the team's best shooting performance in a half this season as the team shot 50% from the field along with a 45% shooting clip from behind the arc.

"I thought we showed growth," Alabama coach Nate Oats said. "We were up 27 against Ole Miss and then we let our foot off the gas and they cut it to 15. If I remember correctly we were up 27 again exactly and I remember going into the huddle and saying, 'Here it is guys we're up 27. What are you going to do with it? We came out and pushed the lead to 31 instead of letting them get back in it."