Alabama currently owns Kentucky in basketball as Alabama has now beaten Ky 4 straight times. Alabama wins over Kentucky this afternoon 89 to 74 as one new player to the Bama squad comes out of hiding to contribute meaningfully to the winning effort and another new key acquisition to the team this year was MIA as Alabama starts SEC play with a win. One win down, 17 to go for Bama in the SEC. Alabama has now beaten KY four straight times. And Alabama has been to a sweet 16, final four, and elite 8 in the last three years. Kentucky meanwhile ran John Calipari out of town and over to Arkansas and hired Mark Pope to take his place and to try to rebuild Kentucky into a championship contending top ten team again. The Nate Oates-led Alabama basketball program has surpassed Kentucky as an elite top ten program while Kentucky that spent over $20 million on its NIL and spent millions on acquiring players in the portal in the off-season is struggling to be a top thirty level program right now. Alabama 89, Kentucky 74 — in Tuscaloosa, opening SEC play for both teams. The Stats Bama players: Aden Holloway had 27 pts, 7 assts, and no Turnovers leading Bama Noah Williamson scored 10 pts, grabbed 4 rebs, dished out 2 assists, blocked 1 shot, and had 2 steals. Labaron Philon had a quiet 17 pts, 4 rebs, 3 assists, 3 steals, and only 1 TO scoring most of his points in the 2nd half. KY keyed on Philon and pressured him all over the court with the clear goal of making sure Philon didn’t torch KY, and yet Philon still scored 17 pts and didn’t try to force things, but was 0-6 from three. Houston Mallette had 14 pts and 5 rebs and 1 TO in another solid Mallette performance Amari Allen had 11 pts, 9 rebs, 3 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block, but had 3 TO’s. Bama shot 46% from the field and 39% from Three despite Philon’s 0 for 6 from three Bama made 75% of their free throws Bama made 15 threes compared to 4 from KY Bama outrebounded KY 41 to 37 as Bama worked to gang-rebound with 5 hitting the boards on the defensive end most every possession. Bama had 17 assists to only 9 for KY – indicative of Bama’s great ball movement Ky only outscored Bama 36 to 32 in the paint TO’s- 10 for Bama to 12 for KY Highlights Five Bama players in double-figures. Aden Holloway scoring 26 pts with 5 assists while shooting 6-8 from 3. Philon, Allen, Williamson, and Mallette also scored in double-digits Bama led by 14 at the half and won by 13 as they held onto the lead to get a good home win to start SEC play. Williamson’s play was much needed with Sherrell’s knee injury and not being available for much of the game. One game is not a trend, but Williamson played well tonight, contributed, and showed in this game that he can play against SEC competition. Can he play this well and contribute like this game in and game out? Not sure? But this is the first signs of life we have seen from Williamson this season. We need this type of performance in many more games. Encouraging performance. Let’s see what we get at Vandy. Great shooting from the field, from three, and from the free throw line Offensive efficiency with 17 assists and only 10 TO’s Outrebounded KY Won by double digits Hard hat award again to Amari Allen as he had another all-around great stat stuffer performance highlighted by Allen’s 9 rebs Philon and Holloway are the best duo of guards in the SEC and one of the best duo’s in the nation. Issues Injury to Sherrell – knee - how bad? TBB out with back issues Davion Hannah still out with injury Jalil Bethea was MIA. Only played 3 minutes in the first half. Jacked up 3 and missed it and was quickly pulled from the game and didn’t play any more. He has great upside and Bama needs more from him game in and game out. Bristow played, but didn’t contribute much Wrightsell had a subpar game and shot poorly. Alabama is now 11-3 on the season. Next up for Bama is at Vanderbilt on Wednesday Night, Jan 7.