In the first half, Kentucky looked like the top team in the Southeastern Conference playing against the bottom team in the conference.
It got far more complicated in the second half.
But the sixth-ranked Cats managed to stay atop the conference by holding off Alabama 82-68 for their 17th straight win at a sold-out Memorial Coliseum on Sunday.
Kentucky Coach Matthew Mitchell also got plenty of fodder for film sessions this week.
"It was almost as if we thought if we got a certain number of points ahead, then Alabama was going to go away," he said. "That certainly never happened today."
Apparently that number was 25, which was UK's lead late in the first half after they cruised ahead with a 32-4 run that included a nearly nine-minute span without a point for the Crimson Tide.
The second half was a different story.
Alabama, which hasn't knocked off a ranked opponent in nine years, was able to pull within 11 points on three separate occasions, including a final time with a little less than five minutes to play.
"We did a poor job on defense," junior guard A'dia Mathies said of the Tide's big run. "We let them go where they wanted to go. We know that's on us."
It definitely wasn't Kentucky defense, Mitchell said.
"I didn't feel like we defended up to a Kentucky level today," the coach said of his team, which won its seventh straight over the Crimson Tide. "They saw that we weren't going to stay in front of the ball and we weren't going to rotate over. You can't make a lot happen when you just let people dribble by you in the middle of the floor and go lay the ball up."
Coach Wendell Hudson was pleased with his team's effort, which included outscoring Kentucky 39-36 in the second half.
"We played awful hard," he said. "We just didn't play as well as we needed to play. They are the No. 6 team in the country. I think most of you all thought this was going to be a different game than it actually ended up being."
Mitchell hopes his team learns this lesson quickly.
The key lesson?
"If they continue to do that, they'll get beat," he said.
Kentucky (20-2, 9-0 SEC) looked unstoppable in parts of the first half when they used a 32-4 run to go up by 25 points with 3:17 to go.
At the break, Alabama had nearly as many turnovers (16) as it averages per game (16.8) so far this season. The Tide finished with 25 of them, which resulted in 29 points for the Cats.
That big Kentucky run started at 17-1, including nine points from Keyla Snowden.
The senior guard, who played just five minutes at Auburn last time out, led UK with 14 points. A'dia Mathies added 13 points and four rebounds. Bria Goss had 11 points and three steals.
Eight different UK players had six points or more in the win. Samarie Walker added nine points and seven rebounds. Brittany Henderson also collected seven rebounds to go with her seven points and two blocked shots.
Alabama was led by Kyra Cosby and Jasmine Robinson, who each had 14 points and three rebounds in the loss, which moved the Tide to 10-12 overall and 0-8 in the SEC.
Kentucky's bench outscored Alabama's 42-16.
The Cats learned plenty in the win that was closer than it should have been, Snowden said.
"We're going to come back and work hard and be ready for the next game against Ole Miss," Snowden said. "We're going to put this game behind us and learn from it just so we don't have this happen again."
As many teaching tools as Mitchell got from this game, he was still pleased with the outcome, which kept UK in front in the conference and got the Cats to 20 wins for the third straight season.
"It's a long, long season," Mitchell said. "You're not going to paint a masterpiece every Sunday afternoon and every Thursday night. To be able to earn a victory is significant and we're glad to have it."
