Alabama
Middle Tennessee State
Women's Basketball Slips at MTSU 77-67
12/14/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 14, 2008
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - The women's basketball team dropped a hard-fought game to Middle Tennessee State Sunday 77-67 before a crowd of 5, 017 at the Murphy Center. With the loss, the Crimson Tide drops to 6-3 on the season, while the Blue Raiders improve to 6-4 overall.
"We had a chance in this game but had stretches where we didn't shoot well," said head coach Wendell Hudson. "Things just weren't clicking at some points. I am, however, proud of the way this team never gave up. The effort was always there."
Sophomore Tierney Jenkins was Alabama's top point producer with 15 points, while classmate Daleisha Carn followed closely behind with 13. Junior Alysha Clark led Middle Tennessee State with 29 points.
The Blue Raiders led early on with the score set at 9-5 before Alabama went on a quick 5-0 run. Junior Dedrea Magee hit a layup and the extra point to put the Tide on top 10-9. Neither team scored a basket for about two minutes until Clark threw down a jumper to put the advantage back in Middle Tennessee's court. The Blue Raiders continued to build on their lead and went up by as many as seven on three occasions. Alabama fought back in cutting the lead to three at halftime behind a 6-3 run.
The Blue Raiders struck first in the second frame with a pair of free throws from Clark just 30 seconds in. She collected 11 of her 29 points from the charity stripe. Middle Tennessee attempted to pull away over the next couple of minutes, but the Tide stayed close and cut the lead to one off a layup from Carn at 12:39. The Blue Raiders then jumped ahead on a quick 10-0 run in under two minutes. They would pull in front by 14 with 3:15 left. Alabama chipped at the lead and cut it to six points late in the half, but ran out of clock to work with.
For the game, the Tide shot 42.6 percent from the field, while Middle Tennessee connected on 51.2 percent of its shots. Alabama's bench outscored the Blue Raiders 37-0. The big difference in the contest was at the free-throw line where Middle Tennessee made 29 of its 38 attempts. Alabama took 20 less shots from the charity stripe and finished the game 11-18.
"Middle Tennessee is a good basketball team," added Hudson. "You can't take anything away from them. They had a great crowd tonight, got some energy from that and played well. They did a good job."
Next up, Alabama will host Florida A&M on Wednesday, Dec. 17 at Coleman Coliseum. Tipoff is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. (CST).
