Alabama
Vanderbilt
Women's Basketball Edged by No. 24 Vanderbilt 85-76
1/8/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 8, 2009
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The women's basketball team cut a 26-point deficit to four, but No. 24 Vanderbilt was able to hold on to win 85-76 Thursday night in Coleman Coliseum in the Southeastern Conference opener. Freshman Ericka Russell drained a career-best 25 points including 15 from three-point range. Both the Crimson Tide and Commodores move to 12-4 on the season.
"The first half was not the team we have watched go out and compete and play hard," said head coach Wendell Hudson. "It was the first conference game, of course against the good team that Vanderbilt is, I think the jitters were kind of there. It was not our basketball team; it looked like somebody else out there playing in the first half. If this team competes like they have all year, they will give themselves a chance to win some conference games. If we would have played with the same type of intensity in the first half as we did in the second half, maybe the outcome would have been a little different. But, at the same time, we grew. This team went out and fought hard. They didn't give up. I am just so proud of this basketball team and the effort they gave in the second half."
Alabama had five players reach double digits in scoring led by Russell's 25. Sophomore guard Varisia Raffington dropped 16 points, sophomore forward Tierney Jenkins added 11 and sophomore guard Alyson Butler contributed 10. Junior forward Courtney Strauthers earned her first double-double of the season with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Junior guard Dedrea Magee dished out a career-high ten assists. Vanderbilt was led by senior Jennifer Risper with 17 points.
Russell connected on a three-pointer to open scoring and give the Tide a quick lead. Alabama continued to stay in front until Vanderbilt junior Merideth Marsh buried a three of her own to go ahead 9-7 at the 16:19 mark. The Tide kept it close over the next six minutes until the Commodores put together a 26-8 run to end the half. Vanderbilt headed into the break with a 25-point advantage 47-22.
Alabama scored the first two points of the second frame off a pair of free throws from Jenkins, but the Commodores responded with the next four point giving Vanderbilt's its largest lead of the game at 26. The Tide gradually chipped away and put together a 20-6 run midway through the half to pull within eight points with 12:50 remaining on the clock. The Commodores scored the next six points gaining another double-digit lead, but Alabama would not give up. The Tide formulated a 13-2 run to come within four points of the lead. Raffington was responsible for seven of the 13 points during that stretch. Vanderbilt went on to score seven of the last nine points scored in the game to pick up the win.
Alabama was 42 percent from the field while shooting 53 percent from behind the arc, and Vanderbilt shot 55 percent from the field while shooting 39 percent from three-point range. Next up, Alabama travels to Baton Rouge to face LSU on Sunday, Jan. 11 at 2:00 p.m. (CST).
Alabama Head Coach Wendell Hudson
Opening Statement:
"The first half was not the team we have watched go out and compete and play hard. It was the first conference game, of course against the good team that Vanderbilt is, and, I think the jitters were kind of there. It was not our basketball team; it looked like somebody else out there playing in the first half. I thought the second half, without any question when we were down by 24 or 25 points at half time going against a really good team, we fought back and gave ourselves a chance. When you are down that much you build almost an insurmountable lead that you are not going to come back and necessarily win, but you prove to yourself that you can play in this league and play some of the better teams and compete. If this team competes like they have all year, they will give themselves a chance to win some games. If we would have played with the same type of intensity in the first half as we did in the second half, maybe the outcome would have been a little different. But, at the same time, we grew. We have been talking all year about this team taking steps and growing, and without any question we had a chance after halftime to bow the chin up. Let's be honest about it. This team went out and fought hard. They didn't give up. I am just so proud of this basketball team and the effort they gave in the second half."
On what was said to the team at halftime:
"What is said in the dressing room is kind of like Las Vegas. What is said in the dressing room stays in the dressing room (laughs). We just talked to them about not being the same basketball team. It didn't have anything to do with physical play from the standpoint of not being able to play; it was that mentally we were not the same basketball team in the first half. I told them if they believe they can get it done then we will give ourselves a chance to win this basketball game. You have to go back out and fight and be the basketball team that we have been all year."
On the play of Ericka Russell:
"Ericka was one of the people in the first half that I thought gave the same effort and was playing with the same effort and tempo. As far as her effort and play in the first half, she was the same player and that's what we have come to expect of her."
On the overall play of the Tide tonight:
"This is a hard working team. You saw a basketball team get down, had an opportunity to get blown out of Coleman Coliseum, came back, hung in there, fought and gave themselves a chance to win the basketball game."
On changing up the lineup:
"Well, what we were doing was looking for the players, not necessarily who were going to play the hardest, but the ones who had the most chemistry as a group. When you are down 24 points and you are trying to get back in the basketball game, you have to look for the chemistry. We will tweak the lineup some."
Alabama Sophomore Forward Tierney Jenkins
On tonight's game:
"I think personally the first half was horrible, and I just think that maybe we just focused too much on how Vanderbilt was last year. Coach said at halftime maybe we were giving too much respect to Vanderbilt , at the same time they're a good team, but so are we. I think in the second half we came out and tried to prove that we can compete with anyone night in and night out no matter who we're playing."
On the turnaround point in tonight's game:
"Coach (Joni) Crenshaw pulled me aside and told me `Tierney, you're one of the leaders on the team so if you need to make that first basket or get that first rebound, whatever it is to get on a run, that's what you need to do,' so I tried to score that first basket. And then Ericka (Russell), she played the best game of her career so far and she's just a freshman. In the second half, whatever we needed to do, make the shots or make the passes, that's what we did."
On Ericka Russell's three-pointer late in the game:
"It was huge. Not only was it huge for us, but it got the crowd back into it. The crowd was feeling it and so were we. We just got more confidence in ourselves and thought `if she can make that we can make easy twos or whatever we need.'"
Alabama Freshman Guard Ericka Russell
On what Coach Hudson said at halftime:
"He told us that we were giving them too much respect and that we are a great team. He said we are a great SEC team and we have to believe in ourselves; if we could believe in Alabama then we knew we could get the job done."
On her three-pointer late in the game:
"It was big. It got us a little bit of momentum and gave us a little bit on confidence to let us know we could get back into this thing."
On her feelings about the team thus far:
"There are not many people who believed in Alabama. I mean they picked us last in the conference, but Coach (Wendell) Hudson told us to just keep our heads up. We know we're a good team."
Vanderbilt Head Coach Melanie Balcomb
On Alabama's Second Half Comeback:
"They never quit, they never stop and they play with a lot of energy. It was kind of like a football game, time of possession killed us. They had 25 points off of second chance offensive rebounds."
On Ericka Russell's Individual Performance:
"We didn't control her. We were really trying to stop her from getting the basketball and didn't do a very good job. Once she gets one on one, she can take a step back and create a shot and that makes her very difficult to guard. Her individual performance was really good."
On the difference of this year's Alabama squad compared to last year's team:
"This team is way different than last year, a lot of the same personnel, but a totally different team. They didn't quit, they didn't lay down and they fought back. It's tough when there is only 100 people in the gym and you have a big lead. I'm not giving my team an excuse, but we didn't come out in that second half. Maybe I should have done something more at halftime to get them to realize that this isn't the Alabama team that you've played against in the past. Those first four minutes of the second half they gained confidence and a lot of momentum and that is what we have to learn from this game. Welcome to the SEC."
