Tide Remains Perfect at Home With Win Over Birmingham Southern
12/18/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Taking advantage of a substantial height advantage and utilizing a record-setting performance by its true freshman point guard, the Crimson Tide women’s basketball team cruised to an 83-66 decision over instate rival Birmingham Southern in Coleman Coliseum Monday night.
The win moved the Tide’s home win streak to seven games in as many tries and kept Alabama’s perfect record against instate foes spotless in 2006-07. The Tide moved to 8-4 on the year, while BSC dropped to 3-7 on the season.
Alabama earned the win on the strength of its advantage in the post. With no Birmingham Southern players over the six-feet mark, the Tide outscored the visiting Panthers 50-14 in the paint on the night while shooting 49.2 percent from the field.
Getting the ball to the taller Alabama players was the job of true freshman point guard Nikki Davis, who performed the task to perfection. The native of Frankfort, Ky., racked up 11 assists on the night, setting a career high and establishing a new freshmen mark at the Capstone in the process.
When Davis wasn’t busy setting up her teammates, she was just as effective putting it in the basket herself. Davis poured in a team-high 16 points, tying a career best and set a new career mark at the free-throw line by converting 10-of-11 from the charity stripe.
“Nikki Davis is really the only true point guard on this team,” said Tide head coach Stephany Smith. “She struggled in the last two games, and as a result, we struggled with our rhythm as a team. She did a significantly better job tonight and that really helped us.”
Tamara Williams, who earned her first career start and was one of the three true freshmen starting for the Tide this evening, made it a memorable one. Williams put in 12 points, a new career best, while pulling down eight boards. She added a pair of blocks and a steal to the winning effort as well.
“Tamara fights hard on both ends of the floor for us,” said Smith. “She brings that to practice every day, and it was just a matter of time before she made up the learning curve. She is a great communicator and can really help us out when she is on the floor.”
Meanwhile, the Tide defense took advantage of some cold Panther shooting. Birmingham Southern converted 20.7 percent from the field (6-of-29) in the first half and finished with a 29.4 percent effort in the game.
Alabama finished with 21 assists and 17 turnovers, its third game this season with a positive assist/turnover ratio and recorded 20 assists for the third time in 2006-07.
The Tide plays host to Belmont on Wednesday, Dec. 20 before taking off a week for the winter Holidays. The contest with Belmont is slated to tip at 7 p.m. in Coleman Coliseum.
