TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – This time, Alabama held on.
The Crimson Tide are rolling.
Tevin Mack made six first-half 3-pointers on his way to 22 points, and the Alabama men’s basketball team held off No. 13 Kentucky 77-75 in the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams Saturday.
Dazon Ingram scored all 11 of his points after halftime, including some key free throws in the Tide’s fifth consecutive win. The Wildcats gave them a big scare in the final seconds after surging back from 11 points down but came up short, moving both teams to 10-3 overall.
Alabama’s winning streak began after it lost 83-80 to Georgia State on a game-ending 3. It looked as if the Tide might be headed for another tough ending, but this time the result went their way.
“That would have hurt,” Mack said. “To play our heart out the whole game and end up with nothing, it would have hurt. I’m glad we were able to get out of there with a win.”
Alabama coach Avery Johnson said the team had probably its hardest four-day stretch of practice of his tenure this past week. He called it “a huge win for our program.”
“We talked a lot about it behind the scenes,” said Johnson, who’s in his fourth season. “We needed to beat Kentucky.”
Ingram made two free throws with 23 seconds left in between back-to-back layups by Ashton Hagans. The second layup cut it to 76-73 with 16 seconds left. Alabama got the ball across midcourt but Hagans came away with the ball on a steal from Ingram.
P.J. Washington scored on a dunk with five seconds to play and Kentucky quickly fouled John Petty, who made one of two shots from the line.
Tyler Herro’s 3-point try at the buzzer bounced off the rim. Hagans passed him the ball after he couldn’t find an opening for a shot.
“It went to Ashton, and he drove middle and he flips it back and we get a good look from the top of the key for the win,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said. “Look, we didn’t deserve to win the game. We really didn’t. We just kind of clawed and made it close and gave ourselves a chance.”