Women's Basketball Falls to Florida 92-71
2/5/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 5, 2009
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The women's basketball team fell to Florida 92-71 Thursday night in Coleman Coliseum, despite four Tide players scoring in double-digits. With the loss, the Crimson Tide dips to 12-11 on the season and 0-8 in conference play, while the Gators move to 21-2 and 7-1 in SEC games.
"Florida's record right now is 21-2, and we say it a lot but it's the truth," said head coach Wendell Hudson. "They're a good basketball team. (For us), the effort is there. We are playing hard on both ends of the court. The big thing in basketball is that you have to make shots. When you don't make shots, you don't look as well or feel as good as you would like to. That's what happened in the first half. We were matching up and playing with a lot of energy and playing Florida tough. They made a couple of plays and made some great shots. We didn't match those shots."
Sophomore guard Varisia Raffington, coming off a career-high 27 point game at Vanderbilt, led Alabama scorers with 18 points. Sophomore forward Tierney Jenkins put up her sixth double-double of the season with 16 points and 11 boards. Junior forward Courtney Strauthers put up 12 points and pulled down 5 boards. Freshman guard Ericka Russell scored 11 as well as dishing out one assist and grabbing one steal, while junior guard Dedrea Magee dished out a game-high eight assists. Florida senior Sha Brooks led the Gators with 29 points.
Florida dropped the first points of the contest with a Steffi Sorensen three-pointer. Alabama's Raffington connected on a three-pointer of her own to give the Tide the lead 9-8. Strauthers hit a layup then drained a free throw to give Alabama a four-point lead at the 15 minute mark. A Gator layup tied the game at 17-17 before Raffington drained a jumper to put the Tide on top again, 19-17. Jenkins gave Alabama a four point lead at 30-26 minutes later with another strong layup, however Florida responded, scoring the next 12 points to go up 38-30. The Gators would score the last eight points of the half to earn a 48-35 lead at the break.
In the second frame, Alabama came out fighting, scoring the first seven points behind 5-of-5 shooting from the field to cut the lead to six at 48-42. Back-to-back jumpers by Florida helped the Gators pull away before two Magee free throws cut the lead to nine at 58-49. Florida's Brooks hit a three pointer around the 18 minute mark and Russell responded with a three of her own to cut the lead to six at 51-46. Raffington buried a three-pointer at 13 minutes to make it 68-56. Magee then laid in a two-pointer and connected on a free throw to cut the lead to 11 with a little over 11 minutes to go in the game. Florida hit three three-pointers in a row to put the score at 84-60 at the eight minute mark. Senior guard Camilla Blands connected on two free throws with under three minutes to play to put the game at 91-68. Blands stepped up to the free throw line again to drained three shots with 20 seconds left to make the final score 92-71.
Alabama shot 52 percent from the field in the first half on its way to 39 percent for the game. The Tide connected on 6-21 from behind the arc for 29 percent. The Gators were 49 percent from the field and 65 from behind the three point line.
Next up, the Tide welcomes instate rival Auburn to Coleman Coliseum Sunday, February 8. Tipoff is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. (CST).
Alabama Head Coach Wendell Hudson
Opening statement:
"Florida's record right now is 21-2, and we say it a lot but it's the truth. They're a good basketball team. They've got some playmakers, Sha Brooks for example. At times I thought we were guarding her, and she would jump up and make a three-point shot and did some things that good players and playmakers do in big basketball games. They've got several playmakers like that. If you don't match a team like that, as far as keeping the score a little closer, point to point, then they will get on a roll, and they got on a roll especially in the second half. You have to make some yourself. I thought we had some good looks ourselves, as far the openings to shoot the basketball, and they didn't fall."
On the play of Varisia Raffington:
"She did a very good job, and she's been playing awful well in conference play, just playing on both ends of the court. A lot of times she's assigned to guard the toughest offensive player on the other team. She is playing so many minutes now, you can tell she reached a point where she is worn out and makes some mental errors and maybe not play on the defensive end the way she needs to. We can't complain about that because she's playing a lot of minutes for us and giving us all she has."
On the competitive spirit of the team:
"I don't they ever give up, as far as giving the effort that we need to give every night. The effort is there. We are playing hard on both ends of the court. The big thing in basketball is that you have to make shots. When you don't make shots, you don't look as well or feel as good as you would like to. That's what happened in the first half. We were matching up and playing with a lot of energy and playing Florida tough. They made a couple of plays and made some great shots. We didn't match those shots."
On Alabama's next game against Auburn:
"I think they understand that we will give them a lot of effort. We just have to match some plays. There are stretches where if you can match some plays, as far as if they make a basket then you have to make one, or if they get a stop then we need to get one too, if you can match plays you have a chance to stay in the basketball game and a chance to win the basketball game. I hope there will be a big crowd out for the game. It's a big game against our instate rival. It doesn't matter; when we play Auburn it's going to be a big basketball game."
On the crowds at Colman Coliseum:
"I think that the crowd and the people that come out are rewarding this team for their effort. They are playing hard. We would like to win some games and win some of these conference games, but at the same time we want to bring the same type of effort when doing that. This team is giving their heart and soul to the program right now. This team is laying some ground work for future, better teams that will be able to win in the SEC because of their effort."
On welcoming back some alumni for the weekend:
"That's part of making sure the program is staying where we would like it by bringing back former players back in and welcoming them and making them feel good. We want them to be a part of what we are doing here."
Alabama Sophomore Guard Varisia Raffington
On loss to Florida:
"We like to fight back. We got down at the half but we try not to put too much pressure on ourselves. We were just able to go in at the half and regroup. We calmed down and came out in the second half and played our game. It's hard when they were shooting from the three-point line like they were tonight."
On facing Auburn on Sunday:
"It's going to be real exciting playing them at home. We are hoping for the win of course. We just have to come out fighting. We mainly have to contain their players, especially their shooters. We have to focus on DeWanna Bonner, but I don't want to put too much emphasis on that. There are five players out there; it takes five players to win. We just have to come out and play team basketball and work hard."
Alabama Junior Forward Courtney Strauthers
On loss to Florida:
"It's definitely frustrating for me and for the team. We just have to keep our heads up and keep going. We can't get down or it's going to be a long season. We have to come to practice every day and work hard. We just have to keep working."
Florida Head Coach Amanda Butler
Opening Statement:
"Whenever you can come on another team's home floor and win, first of all, and score over 90 points, I think that is a great day. This was a game that was certainly not the prettiest and not as much defense played tonight by either team. I'm sure whatever Coach (Wendell Hudson) shared with you before I got in here was much of the same sentiment. We feel like we are a much better defensive team than we showed tonight. I give Alabama a lot of credit. They set the tone in both halves. I was very proud of our team maintaining their composure. Sha Brooks came out and hit her first three, than had some rough patches, but kept plugging away and ended up with 29 points. We had great balance and got a great team win. Steffi Sorenson was one rebound away from a double-double, and Marshae Dotson with a double-double in a very physical ballgame. It was a great test for us in that regard. I liked our toughness. I liked the way we played through some possessions where there was a lot of contact, and we came out on the better end of them."
On Florida's offensive rebounding:
"I think that's just effort and desire. You look at Steffi and Marshae, who both had really good rebounding nights tonight. Why should either one of them get a bunch of rebounds? They are just pursuing the ball. Neither one of them is a 6-2 or 6-3 leaper. They were just great at pursuing the ball, and I think that is just fantastic effort."
