Moral victories are never a cause for celebration, but after the way the Tide play Thursday night against Vanderbilt, a good showing against Kentucky was needed. Bama did lose to the Wildcats 77-71, but showed heart in the loss.

The Tide was led by JaMychal Green who had 22 points and Trevor Releford who added 17 points all in second half. Releford was the talk of the game with his circus like shots and his three-point shooting. The Tide shot much better from the field shooting 48 percent over all including 5-7 from the three-point line.

Kentucky was up by as many as eight in the game, but everytime it looked like the Wildcats were about to run away with the game, the Tide would make a run themselves and cut the lead to as many as a single point in the second half. But the Wildcats would close out the game with their free throw shooting.

While they struggled for most of the game from the free throw line, when it was crunch time, the Wildcats came through and they would need every last point to hold off the Tide.

Kentucky head coach John Calipari said his team was “lucky to be in the game.”

Tide head coach Anthony Grant summed up the loss this way:

I thought our guys certainly gave the effort and played with the passion that as a coach you want to see. Unfortunately, we weren't able to make the plays that we needed to make down the stretch to win the game."

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