Alabama
Mississippi
Women's Basketball Nets Win Over Ole Miss 67-59
2/19/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 19, 2009
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The women's basketball team captured its first SEC victory with a 67-59 win over Ole Miss Thursday at Coleman Coliseum snapping a 25-game losing streak against conference foes. With the win, the Crimson Tide moves to 13-14 for the year and 1-11 in the league, while the Rebels are now 15-12 on the season and 4-8 in SEC play.
"We played every play like it was the last play," said head coach Wendell Hudson. "That's what we talked to the team about before we went out on the floor. We told them to play every play like it was the last. Let's not wait on one play or wait until we are down. Even when we were down, we were still playing hard and getting shots. We got shots that we knew we could make. We got a lot of tips. Ole Miss had sixteen turnovers and I attribute that to the way this team played on the defensive end of the court."
Alabama was led offensively by sophomore forward Tierney Jenkins with 25 points and 14 boards for her seventh double-double for the year. Freshman guard Ericka Russell and junior guard Dedrea Magee also contributed offensively for the Tide, with 17 and 12 points, respectively. Magee dished out five assists and logged her third straight 40 minute game. Alabama's bench came up huge for the Tide with 31 points. Ole Miss was led by junior Bianca Thomas with 23 points.
The Rebels got on the board first scoring the opening two baskets of the game. Alabama cut it to two on the next possession, but Ole Miss used a 13-4 run over the next four and a half minutes to pull in front by 11. The Tide slowly began to chip away at the deficit and put together a run of its own to pull within four at the 8:35 mark off a Jenkins layup. A steal and break away layup by Russell tied the game at 29-29 with a little over two minutes to go in the first half. Alabama took its first lead of the contest nearly 30 seconds later as sophomore Alyson Butler hit a jumper with the assist from Magee. Butler would connect on a pair of free throws to end the half with the Tide up 35-29 at the break.
In the second, Magee and Russell teamed up for the Tide to hit back-to-back jumpers around the 17 minute mark to go up 39-31. Junior forward Courtney Strauthers connected on a layup to put Alabama on top 42-37 with 13 minutes left in the game. A free throw by Ole Miss senior Shawn Goff tied the game for the second time at 47-47 at the eight and a half minute mark before Alabama rattled off six straight points. Russell drained one of her three three pointers of the night to put the Tide on top 58-54. Jenkins stepped up to the line and nailed seven of eight free throws in the last two minutes to give the Tide the 67-59 win.
Alabama shot 37.3 percent from the field, while Ole Miss connected on 30.0 percent of its attempts. While the Rebels out-rebounded the Tide 51 to 41, Alabama had 13 total assists to Ole Miss' five. For the game, the Tide had just 10 team turnovers and forced the Rebels to 16.
"Whatever we had to do to win, I think our whole team was going to do it," said Jenkins. "For me, getting rebounds was what I could do. At the same time, Dedrea was handling the control and tempo of the game. Ericka was knocking down shots. It was a whole team thing."
Next up, the Tide travels to Fayetteville on Feb. 22 to take on the Arkansas Razorbacks. Tipoff is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. (CST).
