Alabama easily defeats Kentucky to reach the semifinals of the SEC Tournament.

NASHVILLE –– No. 5 Alabama men’s basketball cruised past No. 15 Kentucky 99-70 in the SEC Tournament quarterfinal on Friday night. The victory advances the Crimson Tide to semifinal game against No. 4 Florida on Saturday.

The SEC Tournament is a neutral site for every team, but Kentucky fans always pack the arena as if it were a home game. It was super loud in Bridgestone Arena at first, but it grew quieter and quieter as the night went on.

Alabama gained the first lead with a game-opening alley-oop connection between guard Labaron Philon and center Clifford Omoruyi and never looked back. Kentucky tied it at 14 apiece early on but the Crimson Tide said “that’ll be all.”

Philon was a big factor during the run and the entire first half for that matter. The freshman phenom scored 10 points with three assists three steals and a block in the opening 20 minutes.

Poised to continue the momentum as Alabama led 45-38 at the break, Philon scored eight more points within the first four minutes of the second half to give the Tide a comfortable 57-44 lead.

The rest of the Crimson Tide took care of things from there as Kentucky had no answers for Alabama’s offense both from behind the arc and in the paint. Forward Mouhamed Dioubate, who Oats said earlier in the week needed to step up for Saturday, was all over the floor on both ends as he finished with 13 points and eight rebounds.

Alabama forward Jarin Stevenson and guard Aden Holloway were the two other players Oats said needs to step up. Both of which finished in double figures and Holloway tied for the team-lead in assists with four.

For a heavy majority of the contests this season, Alabama has been on the wrong end of the turnover battle. However, this was not the case against the Wildcats as the Crimson Tide forced 16 and committed 10.

Alabama came into the SEC Tournament as the 3-seed while Kentucky was the 6-seed. The Tide will face 2-seed Florida.