Alabama
Mississippi
Women's Basketball Drops 73-43 Decision at Ole Miss
1/18/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 18, 2009
OXFORD, Miss. - The women's basketball team suffered a 73-43 loss to Ole Miss Sunday at the Tad Smith Coliseum. The Crimson Tide falls to 12-7 on the season and 0-4 in SEC play, while the Rebels improve to 13-5 overall and 2-1 in conference games.
"Today's game obviously didn't go the way we wanted it to," said head coach Wendell Hudson. "We are struggling right now from an offensive standpoint. I think we played decent at some points on defense. As a team, we've got to believe we can get it done, but believe it or not, that is harder than it sounds. We can see it in their eyes though. They're playing hard but just don't have that confidence right now."
Freshman Kayla Robinson notched the first double-figure scoring game of her career with a team-high 10 points, and sophomore Varisia Raffington collected a team-best seven rebounds. The game's leading scorer was sophomore Alliesha Easley who finished with 16 points.
Alabama and Ole Miss traded buckets to open the contest before the Tide took its first lead at the 16:58 mark off a junior Dedrea Magee jumper putting Alabama in front 6-4. Less than one minute later junior Elizabeth Robertson hit her first of four three-pointers giving the Rebels the lead back. A three-minute scoreless streak for both teams was ended by Raffington at 13:46 when she sank a jumper setting the score at 8-7. There were three lead changes over the next two minutes of play, but then Ole Miss began to distance itself from Alabama. Robertson hit another three-pointer with 2:38 remaining in the in the half to give the Rebels their first double-digit advantage of the contest. Their largest lead of the first came just before time expired as senior Shawn Goff put up a layup sending Ole Miss in front 38-22.
The Tide wasted no time getting to work in the second half as freshman Ericka Russell committed a steal and capped it off with a layup pulling Alabama within 14 of the lead. The Tide stayed with the Rebels over the first couple of minutes, but Ole Miss was too tough down the stretch.
For the game, Alabama shot 32.8 percent from the floor but managed just one three-pointer. The Rebels completed 39.1 percent of their attempts that included eight threes.
Next up, the Tide travels to take on No. 6/8 Auburn on Thursday, Jan. 22 for an 8:00 p.m. (CST) tipoff.
