Women?s Basketball Downed by No. 3 Tennessee 85-58
2/21/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. ?? The Alabama women's basketball team fell to the No. 3 ranked Tennessee Lady Volunteers 85-58 Thursday night in Coleman Coliseum. Candace Parker led all scorers with 19 points while Tierney Jenkins paced the Tide with 12 points. After the day, Alabama moves to 8-19 overall and 1-11 in SEC play. Tennessee improves to 24-2 on the season and 10-1 in league games.
"I thought that there were moments that we played really well with poise and even confidence at times," head coach Stephany Smith said. "I think a bright spot was Varisia Raffington. I think she came in with a fearless attitude and did some positive things. She looked for some shots and some options within our offense. That was something positive to look at."
Alabama out-shot the third ranked team by shooting 46 percent (26-56) from the floor while holding Tennessee to a 44 percent (32-73) clip. UT shot 36 percent (8-22) from three and 81 percent (13-16) from the free throw line.
Parker shot 7-for-15 from the floor to score 19 points in just 19 minutes of action. Nicky Anosike and Vick Baugh each added 12 while Alex Fuller chipped in 10.
Jenkins led the Tide with 12 points on 6-of-9 shooting. Dedrea Magee nearly had a double-double with nine points and a team-leading eight rebounds. Raffington chipped in eight points on 4-of-10 shooting. UT out-rebounded the UA 43-30.
"I thought they did a nice job of playing off the dribble against us tonight in their high low action," Tennessee head coach Pat Summitt said. "They (Alabama) got some back doors on us. They are obviously running the triangle offense. I felt like we did a pretty good job of defending them, much better job in the second half. We shut down some things they were looking to do. They did a good job of getting some paint points. Obviously they played hard."
Tennessee quickly got out to a 31-10 lead but Alabama rallied back to pull the score to 38-27. UT though ran off an 11-2 run to finish the first half. The largest lead for the Lady Vols was 29 with 36 seconds to go in the contest.
The two teams nearly traded buckets in the paint as UT had a slight 40-32 advantage. UA also kept it close with its bench play, getting out-scored 34-21. The Tide got stung by a 34-11 Lady Vols advantage in points off turnovers.
Alabama will play its final home contest of the season on Sunday, Feb. 24 against Ole Miss with tip-off slated for 2:00 p.m. in Coleman Coliseum. The game will mark senior day for the Tide members. Alabama will then put a wrap on its regular season with a road contest at Vanderbilt. The Tide will play the Commodores on March 2 in Nashville at 2:00 p.m.
-UA-
