Kentucky - 72 (Head Coach: Rick Pitino) - [Ranked 6th by AP]

Player	Min	FG	FGA	3pt FG	3pt FGA	FT	FTA	Reb	PF	Ast	TO	Pts
Rodrick Rhodes	31	4	11	0	1	8	8	8	2	2	0	16
Walter McCarty	35	7	12	0	3	0	1	8	3	0	5	14
Tony Delk	37	6	10	1	4	1	2	5	0	1	1	14
Jeff Sheppard	27	1	4	0	0	4	4	1	3	2	0	6
Andre Riddick	12	2	6	0	0	0	0	3	4	1	0	4
Chris Harrison	12	2	5	2	4	0	0	1	0	1	0	6
Allen Edwards	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Antoine Walker	3	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Anthony Epps	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Jared Prickett	13	2	5	0	0	2	4	0	2	3	1	6
Mark Pope	25	2	3	0	0	2	2	7	2	1	2	6
Cameron Mills	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Team								4
Totals	200	26	57	3	13	17	21	37	16	11	10	72

Alabama - 52 (Head Coach: David Hobbs) - [Ranked 20th by AP]

Player	Min	FG	FGA	3pt FG	3pt FGA	FT	FTA	Reb	PF	Ast	TO	Pts
Jamal Faulkner	27	3	15	2	9	1	2	8	0	2	4	9
Jason Caffey	37	5	11	0	0	3	10	9	1	0	3	13
Marvin Orange	29	2	4	2	4	0	0	0	0	3	4	6
Artie Griffin	34	2	5	2	5	1	2	6	3	2	5	7
Antonio McDyess	21	6	15	0	0	0	2	11	5	0	0	12
Terrance Bethel	3	0	1	0	1	0	0	1	0	1	0	0
Marco Whitfield	8	0	2	0	2	0	0	1	1	4	1	0
Eric Washington	14	0	7	0	6	0	0	0	0	1	1	0
Bryan Passink	13	1	3	1	2	0	0	2	3	1	1	3
Roy Rogers	13	1	3	0	0	0	0	4	1	1	2	2
Team								6
Totals	199	20	66	7	29	5	16	48	14	15	21	52

Game Writeup - Courtesy of Dr. Jeffrey Neil Burch; Dr. J's UK Newsletter, Vol. 4 No. 33. (All Rights Reserved)

The Walter McCarty Show Hits Low Tide:

Kentucky buried the Crimson Tide 72-52 on an ESPN televised game in Tuscaloosa. UK has now won the last 6 consecutive games against Alabama, since their last loss in 1991. The Cats managed only 3 3 pointers for the game, but they held Alabama to only 30.3% FG shooting. UK was ranked 6th by AP, Alabama 20th when this game was played.

Blocked shots seemed to be the order of the day early, as both sides swatted away. The Cats started in a 2-3 zone against the Tide, and stayed there much of the night with occasional switches to man-to-man after some inbounded balls. Caffey started the Tide off in scoring off a missed shot, and Rhodes quickly drove to the hoop to knot the score at 2-2. A Faulkner FT put the Tide up 3-2, but a Riddick bank gave Kentucky a 4-3 lead. Caffey put Bama up with an inside hook at 5-4, and the Tide rolled to a 10-6 lead before the Cats tied it. Neither team shot well early, with the Wildcats beginning with 2-10 FG shooting and the Tide managing 3-11. Bama took its last lead of the game at 12-10, and from there on in it was almost all Kentucky.

The Cats used a 22-3 scoring spurt (from the point where they were down 10-6) to zoom to a 28-13 lead as Walter McCarty went positively ballistic, hitting jump shots, hooks, and making several very nice spin moves (including one where he traveled, but ESPN commentator and former Wildcat Larry Conley said "I liked it anyway!"). One McCarty spin move basket was against 3 defenders down low. UK held Alabama without a field goal for one stretch well over 9 minutes as the Tide managed only 1 Caffey FT, a Griffin FT, until McDyess managed a basket with around 3 minutes left in the half.

When Harrison nailed a 3 (after a couple of misses), the Wildcats led 31-16. Griffin hit a 3 and Caffey made a FT to close to within 33-20 at the half. Alabama hit on a mere 23.3% of its 1st half FGs, and made only 2 of 13 3 pointers against the UK zone. The Tide hit only 40.0% of its 1st half FTs (versus 41.2% FG shooting for Kentucky, a cold 22.2% of its 3 pointers, and 60.0% of its FTs).

Orange squeezed out a 3 pointer to begin the 2nd half [JNB note - sorry about that!] but Delk managed an old-fashioned 3 point play, and UK pushed out to a 40-25 lead on some Rhodes FTs (Rodrick ended the night perfect from the FT line, hitting on 8-8). McDyess had a dunk attempt blocked clean by McCarty, and then Jeff Sheppard had a dunk attempt blocked outright by McDyess to return the favor. The lead bounced from 12 to 16 points in UK's favor for the next several minutes, as Delk hit a layup, Pope scored from a nice assist by Prickett, and Pope had a putback of a Rhodes miss. Alabama could not sustain a rally and did not hit well from outside.

A Harrison 3 put the Cats up 53-36, but a Falkner 3 and McDyess fadeaway kept the Tide from being blown away. Rhodes continued to drive and draw fouls, and Delk connected on inside shots to make the score 64-48. Final shots by Delk inside, Sheppard FTs (all Jeff's scoring was late in the game), and a long Sheppard 2 closed out the scoring (Jeff had one more attempt at a superdunk thwarted by McDyess, who fouled out on the play). The Tide tried a few more 3s but could not connect, and the final was 72-52.

Jeff Sheppard attempts to control the ball with his fingertips

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