No. 8 Kentucky and No. 4 Alabama’s SEC showdown totaled a whopping 199 points.
The Wildcats’ starting forward, Andrew Carr, was responsible for just four of those points as Kentucky endured a narrow 102-97 loss, snapping its perfect 11-0 home record.
To make matters worse, Carr’s assignment on defense was forward Grant Nelson, who exploded with a game-high 25 points and 11 rebounds.
Nelson was too much for Carr to handle from the tip as the Bama big man scored 10 of his team’s first 15 points. The Kentucky forward was flustered with three fouls in the first half, forcing Kentucky Head Coach Mark Pope to bench Carr in the final minutes of the half.
“I felt like we were battling a lot of frustration out there,” Pope said. “I felt like we were patchworking lineups a little bit, we’re really struggling to guard legally.”
Walking into the locker rooms after the halftime buzzer, Nelson held his head high with 19 points while Carr was scoreless carrying three fouls.
Finally, the former Demon Deacon put numbers on the scoreboard with a made basket at the rim more than two minutes into the second half. It took Carr 14 minutes to score, making him the last starter in the game to do so.
“We had some moments against (Nelson) that were much more productive, but for us to send him to the free-throw line 10 times is really tough,” Pope said.
Again, Carr’s fouls would come back to haunt him as the 6-foot-11 forward fouled Nelson again at the baseline and Pope had to resort to his bench.
“It was an issue because it was the (rebounds) that hurt us two ways,” Pope said. “One, we were getting bullied at the rim. Two, it hurts on the long shot, long rebounds, scrambles… I don’t think we won the 50/50 ball game.”
This directly resulted in Ansley Almonor and Brandon Garrison getting an uptick in minutes as Almonor averaged 12 minutes per game and finished with 19 total and Garrison averaged 18 minutes and also saw 19 minutes played.
Thankfully for Kentucky, Almonor and Garrison provided good minutes and combined for 21 of the squad’s 31 bench points with a collaborative 7-11 shooting from the field.
It was obvious down the stretch that Pope was relying heavily on forward Otega Oweh as he only rested for three minutes in the second half and was able to force a pair of turnovers on Nelson.
“Obviously AC (Carr) is going through stuff, but he gave it his all and we just gotta do better,” Oweh said. “Being in the gaps, helping (Carr) out because there were a lot of plays that he was kind of on an island, one on one (with Nelson).”
Throughout the second half, Carr was found at the end of the bench with a back brace as he appeared to be wrestling a tweak.
“You know, we got a couple guys down, Andrew is battling something… so, I feel like this week (we need) to get those guys back right,” Garrison said.
Carr was subbed out for the final four minutes of the game with a loss hanging in the balance.
Across the board, the Kentucky forward posted a mere four points, one rebound, one assist and four fouls in 18 minutes played. Thus far, Carr had been averaging 11.4, 5.8, 2.4 on 26 minutes per game, which is a far cry from his outing against Alabama.
Interestingly enough, in Kentucky’s biggest wins against No. 6 Duke and No. 7 Gonzaga, Carr had led the Cats in scoring with 17 and 19, respectively. Conversely, in Kentucky’s defeats against unranked Clemson, Carr scored five points on 1-7 shooting and, against unranked Georgia, he scored six points on 2-7 shooting.
Put simply, there’s a direct correlation to the Wildcats’ success and their big man performing strongly.
The Wildcats will next travel to Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville, Tennessee, to play the Vanderbilt Commodores on Saturday, Jan. 25. Tipoff is set for 2:30 p.m. ET with live coverage by ESPN.
