Alabama
Presbyterian
Women's Basketball Defeats Presbyterian, 65-47
12/19/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 19, 2011
Alabama 65, Presbyterian 47 [Box Score]
Erin Hogue scored a career-best 16 points in the win over Presbyterian
Crimson Tide Basketball Central
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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The women's basketball team improved to 9-4 on the season with a 65-47 victory over the Presbyterian Blue Hose on Monday at Foster Auditorium.
Junior guard/forward Erin Hogue scored a career-high 16 points to lead a balanced Crimson Tide scoring attack that saw Alabama put four players in double-digits. Senior guard Ericka Russell and sophomore guard Jasmine Robinson each scored 11 points while junior guard Meghan Perkinsadded 10.
The matchup versus the Blue Hose served as the Tide's fifth annual Fifth Grade Fastbreak contest that welcomes Tuscaloosa County fifth graders to Foster Auditorium.
"You could tell early in the first half we didn't trust everybody to do their job," said Alabama head coach Wendell Hudson. "Part of it was because some of us had already taken off on that break. I have no problem with players being excited about going home, but you still have to take care of the business at hand. We didn't do that the first half. It's a compliment to this team that we stepped up the second half and did take care of it. It could have been a much tougher struggle if we didn't focus at halftime."
The Tide outscored Presbyterian 44-19 in a dominant second half performance that followed up a somewhat sluggish first half. Alabama shot 17-of-27 (63 percent) from the field in the second half after connecting on just 6-of-24 (25 percent) in the first half. For the game, Alabama held a 28-16 advantage on points in the paint, a 25-11 advantage in points off turnovers and a 24-6 difference in bench points. The 44 points are the most the Tide have scored in a second half this season.
"The second half we came out and scored 44 points compared to our 21 in the first 20 minutes," added Hudson. "I won't take anything away from the way we played in the second half and the effort we put out there."
Trailing 28-21 at halftime, the Tide opened the second half strong, utilizing a 10-2 run over a nearly five-minute stretch to grab a 31-30 advantage. Two quick buckets by Presbyterian gave the Blue Hose the lead right back at 34-31 for a brief measure before Alabama embarked on a game-changing 18-2 run over the next 5:16 of the half.
A three-pointer by Russell got things going as the Tide reeled off nine consecutive points to take a 40-34 lead, from which it would further expound into a 49-36 advantage at the 7:40 mark of the half. From there, Alabama added to the lead even more, pushing the margin to as much as 17 on two occasions before settling on the 18-point final margin.
Dria David led Presbyterian (6-5) with 17 points on the day, while Karlee Taylor added 12 points.
Alabama will have 11 days off before hosting Air Force at Foster Auditorium on Dec. 30. Tip-off is set for 6:30 p.m. CT.
