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TUSCALOOSA — Jasmine Robinson scored 17 points and Alabama held off a big rally for a 77-75 victory over No. 7 Kentucky on Thursday night, the Crimson Tide's first win against a ranked team in more than nine years.
The Tide (12-15, 2-11 Southeastern Conference) had most of a 23-point lead wiped out in the second half before handing the league-leading Wildcats (21-5, 10-3) their third straight defeat.
Alabama hadn't beaten a ranked team since a 70-59 win over No. 24 BYU on Dec. 21, 2002.
A'dia Mathies kept this one in question with 26 points for Kentucky, including a 3-pointer with 1 second left.
Mathies drained a quick 3 and Bria Goss scored on a drive to make it 74-70 with 35 seconds to go. Shafontaye Myers dribbled around for some 20 seconds against Kentucky's full-court pressure before heaving a long pass to a streaking Meghan Perkins for the game-sealing layup.
Robinson had six rebounds and three steals for the Tide. Perkins shot 6 of 7 for 14 points and Kyra Crosby scored 10.
Alabama won despite committing 30 turnovers, partly because the Wildcats had 22 of their own.
Mathies scored 18 in the second half on 8-of-10 shooting, and added six steals and five assists. Samarie Walker added 13 points and Goss 12.
The second half was almost a mirror image of the first. Kentucky shot 60 percent while Alabama was at 33 percent and turned it over 15 times.
The Wildcats trailed 50-28 at halftime after the Tide hit 21 of 30 shots (70 percent) and Kentucky committed 15 turnovers.
Alabama added a free throw 5 seconds into the second half before Kentucky started its comeback attempt.
The Wildcats scored 13 straight points en route to a 19-4 run, closing to within 63-57 on a putback by Mathies with 7:32 left. Alabama missed 10 straight shots during that span, going scoreless for nearly six minutes.
Kentucky cut the deficit to five twice in the next few minutes, but Perkins pushed it to 72-65 on two free throws with 2:35 left.
Neither team scored again until Crosby made another pair from the line with a minute left.
Kentucky came into the game averaging 76.2 points, tied with Tennessee for the SEC lead. But the Wildcats had totaled just 105 in losses to LSU and the Lady Vols, who routed them 91-54 Monday night.
