TUSCALOOSA — Alabama’s ability to play even with Kentucky for 34 minutes was surpassed only by the Wildcats’ pinpoint execution to win the game in the final six minutes.

Patrick Patterson broke a 45-all tie on an inside basket, followed it with a fastbreak dunk, and the Wildcats shot 11-of-12 from the foul line over the final 4:33 to outlast Alabama, 61-51, at Coleman Coliseum.

The Wildcats played the second half without starting guard Ramon Harris, who fainted in the Kentucky locker room at the end of halftime. Harris was taken by ambulance to DCH Medical Center. Harris was treated and released from DCH and returned to Kentucky on the team plane.

Kentucky, the only undefeated team in SEC play, came into the game leading the league in field-goal percentage, rebounding defense and free-throw percentage.

But Alabama held its own on the glass (21-21) and capitalized on nine first-half turnovers by the Wildcats to take a 25-19 halftime lead.

The Crimson Tide (12-7, 2-3 SEC) couldn’t extend that margin when Kentucky forward Patrick Patterson picked up his second, third and fourth personal fouls in the first three and a half minutes of the second half.

Down two starters for much of the game, Kentucky freshman guards DeAndre Liggins and Darius Miller played a combined 56 minutes. And forward
Perry Stevenson was tenacious on both ends of the court.

Stevenson finished with 16 points — 13 in the second half — and 12 rebounds. Liggins added 11 points, 9 after halftime.

“Perry was the best he’s ever been at Kentucky in the time I’ve been here,” Wildcats coach Billy Gillispie said. “His compadre was sitting on the bench in foul trouble and he played when we needed him most.”

Shooting sensation Jodie Meeks was 10-for-18 from the field and finished with 27 points. But he hurt Alabama with a career-high nine rebounds, three on the offensive boards.

“I thought we guarded them pretty well,” Alabama head coach Mark Gottfried said. “Jodie had to earn his points today. ... I thought our guys worked extremely hard on him.”

Patterson went out with 16:24 with Alabama leading, 30-26. He came back at 6:18 with game tied at 45.

“He’s a good player but they also have other good players,” said Justin Knox, who had 5 points and four rebounds in just 16 minutes. “A couple of them stepped up.”

Alabama freshman JaMychal Green said it was frustrating that the Tide couldn’t take advantage of that 10-minute window of opportunity.

“They brought 55 (Josh Harrellson) in, he was another strong player,” Green said. “Maybe not as skilled, but he’s strong. He did a great job defending. They just played great defense.”

Alabama shot a season-low 29 percent from the field on 17-of-58 shooting.

“You’ve got to give Kentucky credit for their defense today,” Gottfried said. “We never seemed to get our offense today in a real good rhythm. ...
Never could generate enough offensively.”

With the game on the line, it was worse in the final six minutes. Alabama was 2-for-10 from the field, 2-for-6 from the foul line and had four turnovers in that stretch.

Knox said the frustrating part wasn’t missing shots, it was not finding any open ones.

“Kentucky played great ‘D’ the whole game. It really wasn’t that,” the forward said. “We just couldn’t get our offense going the last few minutes. It was really hard. No open shots. That was basically it. It was very frustrating because we pretty much had the game. The last six minutes going into
a drought like that was really frustrating.”