Kentucky cruises past Alabama, 78-53, behind Murray’s 23 points

H. C. Thomas led Kentucky in scoring with 12 points.

The Kentucky Wildcats and the Alabama Crimson Tide face off on Tuesday at Rupp Arena in SEC college basketball action. But give them credit, they had that fire in their eyes.

“Tonight was a tough night for us”, Alabama head coach Avery Johnson said.

I asked Calipari during the postgame press conference if that showed signs of maturity by Murray that he came over to hear everything the coach had to say.

Jamal Murray – Murray is enjoying turning 19 and averaging a little over that same amount on the season. Obasohan used his speed and got shots over taller defenders, and got fouled all game long. Marc Loving had 19 points and JaQuan Lyle added 16 for Ohio State (18-11, 10-6), who had a four-game winning streak stopped. Wildcat head coach John Calipari said after the game that Poythress only had one practice before the game and wasn’t sure what to expect. “He’s a pro. He can play on the professional level”. And boy, he’s a pure point guard who can hold his own. Marcus Lee has returned to his early season form with 6 points and 12 rebounds.

Senior forward Alex Poythress scored 14 points and freshman guard Isaiah Briscoe had 10 for the Wildcats. Kentucky committed only four turnovers… In this game, we got over his average with 23 points and four rebounds with an emphatic block in transition.

Sidelined for five games with the injury, the senior forward came off the bench to score 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting in 17 minutes. So we gotta have somebody to throw the ball in the post to so why not me? He shot 5-for-6 from the field and 4-for-6 at the free throw line.

“He knew the team needed him”, Calipari said.

Retin Obasohan did everything in his power to keep Alabama in the game, scoring 29 points on an outstanding 70% shooting mark, and also was second on the team in rebounds and jumped higher than humanly possible to throw out a nasty shot block. Aided in the comeback was the difference in shooting, where Kentucky made 50 percent of its field-goal attempts in the second half while Mississippi State made just 32 percent. The Wildcats are going to have to be focused the final few weeks as the SEC regular season wraps up, Kentucky is still sitting in first place for the conference as well, the 10-4 record is a full game ahead of a pack of squads. Five have been points-assists, the other points-rebounds…. Retin Obasohan went right at the heart of the Kentucky defense whenever possible as he amassed 29 points on 9-13 shooting.

NOTES: Murray has scored 20 or more points in seven consecutive games and in double figures in 26 straight….

Ulis is listed at just 5-9, 160 pounds.

None of those matchups present the opportunity for Alabama to pick up another quality win before the end of the year, but the necessity for the Tide to win out is more about not being able to afford another loss than needing another quality victory.