Tide Basketball Falls Short Against No. 3 Lady Vols
1/29/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Sunday, January 29, 2006
BOX SCORE
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- The No. 3-ranked Tennessee Lady Vols proved to be too much Sunday for the Alabama (8-12, 2-5 SEC) women's basketball team, defeating the Tide 89-54 at Thompson-Bowling Arena.
Despite shooting relatively well and connecting on 41 percent of its shots from the field, it wasn't enough to overtake the Lady Vols. Tennessee, coming off two consecutive losses, caught fire early and never cooled off. The Lady Vols shot 57 percent from the field on the day, led by Candace Parker with 15 points and Alexis Hornbuckle with 14 points.
Alabama's Navonda Moore played 37 minutes in the game and led all scorers with 26 points. Moore's 26 points is a new season high. She also contributed 3 steals. Lauren Hill turned in another fine performance with 12 points. Dee Merriweather and Harriett Barnes each collected six rebounds.
"Navonda played really well offensively today," Alabama head coach Stephany Smith said. "She did a good job of getting to basket and to the foul line. She also hit some outside jump shots and did a lot good things for us."
Tennessee jumped out to take an early lead in the game at 10-4. From there the Lady Vols went on a 13-0 run that stretched the lead to 26-4 with 10:58 remaining in the first half. Alabama was able to settle down a bit from that point on and began to find some offense. Smith's team began to get the ball inside and was able to get to the free throw line. The Tide hit 11 of 13 free throws to end the half but still found itself down 43-20 at the break.
"(Tennessee) is so athletic, physical and deep that they can really take you out of your offense," Smith said. "After we settled down and played with a little more patience we were able to do some good things."
Alabama will look to rebound at home this coming Thursday against the Vanderbilt Commodores. The game is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.
