How did Alabama fade down the stretch in loss at Kentucky?

Kentucky's Quade Green (0) shoots while pressured by Alabama's Herbert Jones (10) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2018, in Lexington, Ky.

There was a nervous tension in Rupp Arena on Saturday afternoon.

This Kentucky basketball program hadn't lost five straight since 1990 with a hot Alabama team in town. The four preceding Wildcat losses and uneven play for the first half-plus made things uncomfortable at times.

Then something snapped.

Kentucky went back to being Kentucky in the closing moments, harassing their visitors into four turnovers in the last two minutes for what appeared to a fairly comfortable 81-71 win.

Alabama freshman John Petty said the Tide just got "caught up in the moment" late in the game.

Alabama (17-10, 8-6) led by one twice in the second half. Donta Hall's put-back and foul shot with 8:34 left gave the visitors its final lead of the afternoon. A few moments later, a Wildcat fan made a half-court shot for $10,000 in a moment that seemed to jolt the home crowd to life.

Hall had 16 points to pace Alabama on 7-for-8 shooting. Petty had 13 on 3-for-10 shooting from the perimeter while Collin Sexton added 12. After the game, Sexton said his chin was fine after leaving the game in the first half with a cut that required a bandage to stop bleeding.

Along with the late turnovers, the Tide was crushed by a rebounding deficit that became an issue late. The Wildcats finished with 44 rebounds to Alabama's 27 while scoring 20 second-chance points.

"They just outworked us on the boards," Hall said. "They were the hungrier team, it seemed like."

Kentucky improved to 18-9, 7-7 in a league that John Calipari said deserves nine bids to the NCAA tournament. The loss was the ninth straight for Alabama against Kentucky. The Tide's last win in Rupp Arena remains the 68-64 victory in 2006.

Nobody could grab any sustained momentum in the first half. The 39-34 lead Kentucky took to halftime was the largest for either side.

Alex Reese was the spark off the bench for an Alabama team that was trigger happy from deep. It took 12 shots from behind that arch in the first 12 minutes against the SEC's top 3-point defense. After just 3 fell, the strategy shifted.

Reese, however, was the bright spot. He made a pair from the perimeter to tie his season high with 10 points in the first half alone.

Kentucky only got six first-half minutes from star freshman Kevin Knox. Two quick fouls sent the shooter to the bench and he took just one shot before halftime.

It was clear Alabama wanted to pound it inside after the break. Hall had 12 of his 16 points in the final 20 minutes as penetrating guards found the big man in the paint.

"I knew I had to pick up my energy," Hall said, "pick up my game."

Knox also snapped back to form after the almost invisible first half. All of his 13 points came in a crucial stretch in the second half that saw the Wildcat lead swell to seven before Alabama answered back.

The rebounding issue took its toll late in the game. Perhaps the clinching basket came on Jarred Vanderbilt's tip-in with 1:26 left that made it a 76-69 Wildcat lead.

"We're not good enough to win jumping contests with teams," Johnson said. "There are other times when they were better athletically than we were. We probably jumped as high as we could. They just jumped a little bit higher."

The lead changed hands 15 times in a game that was tied on eight other occasions. Alabama just couldn't weather the final barrage and Rupp Arena could finally exhale as the four-game losing streak ended at the Tide's expense.

Michael Casagrande is an Alabama beat writer for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande.

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