Women?s Basketball Wins Fourth Straight at Home
11/29/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
TUSCALOOSA ?? The University of Alabama women's basketball team plays 17 home games in the 2006-07 season. If the team continues the trend it has set in the first month of the campaign, that will be a very good thing, as the Crimson Tide earned its fourth straight home win with a 68-56 victory over Tennessee Chattanooga in Coleman Coliseum on Wednesday night.
"Tennessee Chattanooga is a very good basketball team that is used to winning," said Tide head coach Stephany Smith. "So this was just a really big win for our basketball team. And for us to win our fourth straight at home is just huge for this program as we try to build our fan base and bring back exciting basketball to Alabama."
The Tide, now 5-2 on the year, utilized a suffocating first-half defensive effort to build its lead. Alabama held the Lady Mocs to just 19 points, the lowest total by an opponent against the Tide in a half this season, and to a 25.7 field goal shooting percentage. That performance marked the third time this season that Alabama has held its foe to below 30 percent from the field in a half and helped UA build a nine-point lead at the break.
In the second half, it was senior and preseason second team All-Southeastern Conference honoree Navonda Moore that stepped it up on the offensive end. Chattanooga cut the lead with a run midway through the second half, but Moore scored 17 of her game-high 25 points in the second frame to answer the Lady Mocs.
For Moore, the performance marked the first 20+ scoring effort of her season and the 10th of her career. She now has 891 career points and is just 109 shy of the 1,000-point barrier in her career.
"Navonda did a great job offensively for us, but I thought a lot of different people stepped up for us tonight," said Smith. "This win should do a lot for our confidence and help us become a program that expects to win every game it plays."
The Tide also took care of the basketball better than it has all season, or indeed since Smith's arrival in Tuscaloosa a year ago. Alabama tallied 15 assists and committed just 13 turnovers for its first positive assist/turnover ratio as a team since December 4, 2004, when UA had 18 assists and 15 turnovers against Virginia Tech.
Despite having been a solid rebounding team all season long, the one negative of the night for the Tide was its performance on the boards. Alabama surrendered 22 offensive rebounds, allowing UTC to score 19 second-chance points on the night. The Tide made up for it on the defensive end, however, garnering 12 steals and taking advantage of 19 Lady Moc turnovers.
"I am a little down about the way we rebounded the basketball tonight," said Smith. "When everyone in the gym is yelling ??box out', you know that it is obvious. We will have to get better at that area of our game before we play again."
Kate Mastin drained a pair of three-pointers and finished with 10 points, as did true freshman Courtney Strauthers, who set a career mark on the offensive end. Nikki Davis tied a career mark with eight assists and led the team with six rebounds and five steals.
Alabama returns to its home floor on Saturday, Dec. 2, when the team plays host to Savannah State as the first game of a men's-women's doubleheader in Coleman Coliseum. The Tide women are set to tip-off at noon, with the men's game against Tennessee State to follow at 2:30 p.m.
