Women's Basketball Opens Regular Season Against Tulane
11/9/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - With two exhibition games under its belt, the Alabama women’s basketball team will open its 2007-08 campaign against Tulane on Saturday, Nov. 10 at 2 p.m. from Coleman Coliseum. The Tide won both of its exhibition games, its latest coming in a 67-44 victory over Mississippi College. The start of the season will mark year-three under head coach Stephany Smith.
Saturday’s game marks the opening of the 34th season in Crimson Tide women’s basketball history. The first official game in program history was on Dec. 6, 1974, a Tide win over Athens University in Athens, Ala. Since then, Alabama has racked up a 581-390 all-time mark, including a 267-107 mark at home in Coleman Coliseum.
Alabama concluded its exhibition slate with a 67-44 victory over Mississippi College. Tthe Tide tallied 39 points and held the Choctaws to just 18 on 30 percent shooting in the second half. Junior Camilla Blands led the charge with 20 points, scoring 16 in the second half. Blands finished the day with 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting and was a marksman from beyond the arc with a 4-for-5 effort. Blands also got the job done on the other end with six blocks, two steals and five rebounds.
“With such a young team you have to pick one or two things at a time to focus on and get better at,” coach Smith said. “You can’t correct everything all at once, not to mention actually working toward perfecting things. I look forward to our opener with Tulane to see how well we improved on the areas we have emphasized since our most recent exhibition game. Tulane is a very talented team coming off a conference USA championship and postseason appearance, who is currently receiving votes in the Top 25.”
Alabama owns a 7-2 mark over the Green Wave in the series, which dates back to 1982. UA captured the first six meetings before Tulane beat the Tide in New Orleans on Dec. 2, 1999. Alabama won the most recent meeting in Coleman Coliseum, a 64-63 decision in Tuscaloosa on Nov. 22, 2000. Alabama will look to avenge last year’s 83-68 defeat in New Orleans.
Tulane was picked to repeat as Conference USA regular season champions in the preseason forecast by the conference’s coaches. The 2007-08 Green Wave women’s basketball team returns nine letter-winners from last season’s Conference USA regular season championship squad, as Tulane will seek a second-straight appearance in the post-season. The Green Wave finished 26-7 and advanced to the second round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament in 2006-07.
Alabama owns a 27-6 mark all-time in season opening games. That record includes wins in nine of the last ten season openers. Alabama won last season’s opener against Samford by the score of 62-53. Stephany Smith is 6-4 all-time in season opening games and had won four of her last five as head coach at MTSU prior to her arrival at Alabama. At the capstone, coach Smith is 1-1 in season opening game.
Next week Alabama will hit the road for its first road contest on the season. The Tide will make the short trek to Birmingham to face Samford for a tipoff scheduled for Tuesday, November 13 at 7:30 p.m. The game will be the grand opening of the new Pete Hanna Center. Samford is coming off of an 18-13 overall record and a 12-8 conference mark, the Bulldogs were 8-4 at home in 2006-07. Samford won its exhibition opener against Montevallo 76-37. UA sports a perfect 7-0 record against its instate foes, including a 3-0 mark in games played in Coleman Coliseum.
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