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Alabama upsets No. 7 Kentucky 77-75
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) --
Jasmine Robinson scored 17 points and Alabama held off a big rally for
a 77-75 victory over No. 7 Kentucky on Thursday night, the Crimson
Tide's first win against a ranked team in more than nine years.
The
Tide (12-15, 2-11 Southeastern Conference) had most of a 23-point lead
wiped out in the second half before handing the league-leading Wildcats
(21-5, 10-3) their third straight defeat.
Alabama hadn't beaten a ranked team since a 70-59 win over No. 24 BYU on Dec. 21, 2002.
A'dia Mathies kept this one in question with 26 points for Kentucky, including a 3-pointer with 1 second left.
Mathies
drained a quick 3 and Bria Goss scored on a drive to make it 74-70 with
35 seconds to go. Shafontaye Myers dribbled around for some 20 seconds
against Kentucky's full-court pressure before heaving a long pass to a
streaking Meghan Perkins for the game-sealing layup.
Robinson had six rebounds and three steals for the Tide. Perkins shot 6 of 7 for 14 points and Kyra Crosby scored 10.
Alabama won despite committing 30 turnovers, partly because the Wildcats had 22 of their own.
Mathies
scored 18 in the second half on 8-of-10 shooting, and added six steals
and five assists. Samarie Walker added 13 points and Goss 12.
The
second half was almost a mirror image of the first. Kentucky shot 60
percent while Alabama was at 33 percent and turned it over 15 times.
The Wildcats trailed 50-28 at halftime after the Tide hit 21 of 30 shots (70 percent) and Kentucky committed 15 turnovers.
Alabama added a free throw 5 seconds into the second half before Kentucky started its comeback attempt.
The
Wildcats scored 13 straight points en route to a 19-4 run, closing to
within 63-57 on a putback by Mathies with 7:32 left. Alabama missed 10
straight shots during that span, going scoreless for nearly six
minutes.
Kentucky cut the deficit to five twice in the next
few minutes, but Perkins pushed it to 72-65 on two free throws with
2:35 left.
Neither team scored again until Crosby made another pair from the line with a minute left.
Kentucky
came into the game averaging 76.2 points, tied with Tennessee for the
SEC lead. But the Wildcats had totaled just 105 in losses to LSU and
the Lady Vols, who routed them 91-54 Monday night.
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