Tide?s Winning Streak Snapped at LSU
1/19/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Thursday, January 19, 2006
BATON ROUGE, La. -- The Alabama women’s basketball team couldn’t keep up with the No. 5-ranked LSU Tigers Thursday night as the Crimson Tide fell on the road 79-43. The loss snaps Alabama’s two-game SEC win streak and drops it to 8-9 overall, 2-2 in the SEC.
The Tigers held the hot hand all night, shooting 49 percent from the field compared to just 34 percent for Alabama. The Tide was also victimized by LSU’s stingy defense that forced Alabama to commit 31 turnovers, a season-high.
“We weren’t able to execute anything offensively,” Alabama head coach Stephany Smith said. “LSU is just too athletic and they smothered us and we didn’t respond well.”
Marverly Nettles, who entered Thursday’s tilt averaging just over 11 points per game, led Alabama with 19 points. She shot 66 percent from the field and it marked the tenth time this season that Nettles has scored in double-figures. Nettles also led the team in rebounds with seven.
LSU seemingly controlled the game from tip-off and Alabama never led. However, Alabama trailed by just 10 points midway through the first half before LSU began to methodically pull away and carried a 35-18 lead into the half.
In the second half, Alabama’s offense struggled to get much of anything going. During an 8:00 span midway through the second half, Alabama managed just one field goal and four points. In that time, LSU’s lead ballooned from just 15 points to 38 points.
LSU’s Seimone Augustus led all scorers in the game with 20 points. Three other Tiger players scored in double figures as well.
Alabama’s 43 points scored is the fewest total this season for the Tide and the 79 points given up are one higher than the previous high of 78 surrendered to South Dakota State back on December 18.
Alabama will return home Sunday to take on South Carolina at 2 p.m. in Coleman Coliseum.
