Local Teams

John Petty Jr. and Jaden Shackelford picked up the slack as short-handed Alabama cruised past Kentucky 85-65 in a matchup of Southeastern Conference leaders Tuesday night in Lexington, Ky.

Petty scored a season-high 23 points and Shackelford added 18 for the Crimson Tide (10-3, 5-0 SEC), who posted their sixth consecutive win for their longest winning streak since a six-game run in 2014-15.

Isaiah Jackson with 14 points led the Wildcats (4-7, 3-1 SEC), who shot only 34.4 percent from the field and committed 19 turnovers.

The Tide made 11 turnovers, shot 45.6 percent overall, and were 14 of 30 on 3-pointers.

Alabama never trailed and the score was tied only once, 17-17, midway through the first half. The final 20-point margin matched their biggest lead.

The Tide lost two starters to injuries during the game with Herb Jones going out with a wrist injury in the first half and Jordan Bruner going down with an apparent knee injury midway through the second.

Jones was averaging 12.9 points and a team-best 6.5 rebounds entering the game while Bruner averaged 9.4 points and 6.6 rebounds in the Tide's previous five outings, all wins. They finished with eight points each.

Jahvon Quinerly, who has seven starts, also missed his third consecutive game because of a medical condition.

The Wildcats were playing their first game since the death of former walk-on and Kentucky baseball pitcher Ben Jordan on Monday.

Despite losing Jones midway through the first half, the Tide held a 42-30 lead at the break, outscoring the Wildcats 25-15 after his exit at the 10:51 mark.

Up only 23-22 at the 8:27 mark of the period, the Tide went on a 10-0 run with Petty and Alex Reese accounting for all the points with a 3-pointer and 2-point field goal each.

The Tide's biggest lead of the half was 14 points before Kentucky's Olivier Sarr cut it to 12 with a pair of free throws in the closing seconds.

--Field Level Media