Women?s Basketball Drops Home Finale 70-54
2/24/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. ?? The University of Alabama women's basketball team dropped its home finale to Ole Miss by the score of 70-54 Sunday afternoon in Coleman Coliseum. The game marked the last home appearance for three seniors as the Tide fall to 8-20 overall and 1-12 in league play. The Lady Rebels improve to 12-14 on the year and 6-7 in the SEC.
"I thought, against their pressure, we did good job taking care of the basketball and getting some really easy shots around the basket," head coach Stephany Smith said. "We just didn't knock them down. It's unfortunate that we didn't make some of those easy baskets."
Four Lady Rebels scored in double-figures and the team shot 44 percent (28-63) from the floor to earn the SEC road win. Bianca Thomas led the charge for Ole Miss with 19 points on 8-for-10 shooting. Shawn Goff had 15 points, six rebounds and five blocks in 37 minutes of action.
Alabama was led by sophomore Dedrea Magee and freshman Varisia Raffington's 11 points each. Magee led the team with three buckets from beyond the arc while Rafffington was 5-for-8 off the bench in 22 minutes.
Ole Miss out-rebounded Alabama 38-35 with Carla Bartee pulling down a game-high eight rebounds. Camilla Blands led the Tide with seven boards and chipped in seven points in 19 minutes.
In her last game at Coleman Coliseum Nathalie Reshard tallied five points and two rebounds. The senior was a perfect 2-for-2 from the charity stripe.
"The last home game is just closing my chapter here at Alabama," Reshard said. "It's been great. The learning experience as a player has helped me come a long way from when I first got here in 2006."
Alabama opened the game with a 10-4 run but Ole Miss quickly countered with a 17-3 run to take a 21-13 lead with 6:56 left in the first half.
The Tide was down by as much as 17 with 13:55 to go in the second half but clawed back to within 10 with (50-40) with 11:28 left. The Lady Rebels then rallied off a 12-2 run over the next four minutes to put the game out of reach.
Alabama will close out its regular season on Sunday, March 2 on the road in Nashville, Tenn. The Tide will face the Vanderbilt Commodores at 2:00 p.m. in Memorial Gym.
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