Alabama
West Alabama
Crimson Tide Women’s Basketball Welcomes West Alabama for Exhibition Matchup on Friday
11/3/2016 3:31:00 PM | Women's Basketball
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Alabama women's basketball team will play its lone exhibition game on Friday, Nov. 4, when it hosts West Alabama at Coleman Coliseum. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m. CT and admission is free.
PROMOTIONS
- Free admission
- Schedule card and poster giveaways
- Tuscaloosa Toyota Season Long Giveaways: Throughout the season, Tuscaloosa Toyota will be giving away prizes such as an iPad Pro 9.7", Beats headphones, $50 iTunes gift cards, $50 American Express gift cards and 43" LCD televisions.
THE BROADCAST
Friday's game can be seen live on SEC Network + via the WatchESPN app. Chris Stewart will be the play-by-play announcer, while Rick Moody joins as the analyst. Fans will be able to follow along with live scoring on RollTide.com and game updates will be available on Twitter via @AlabamaWBB.
THE SERIES
Alabama has faced West Alabama five times in exhibition play since 2005 and four times during the regular season when UWA was previously Livingston University. The Crimson Tide has won all nine prior matchups, most recently on Nov. 4, 2013, 73-31.
ABOUT ALABAMA
The Crimson Tide returns seven letterwinners from a season ago, including four with starting experience. Hannah Cook and Meoshonti Knight started all 31 contest throughout the 2015-16 campaign and were the No. 1 and No. 2 scorers at 12.0 points and 10.1 points per game, respectively. Quanetria Bolton followed with 9.8 points per game, in addition to 4.1 rebounds and a team-high 41 blocks. Shaquera Wade, who played in 30 games and made nine starts as a freshman last year, chipped in 6.0 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.3 steals per outing.
Junior Ashley Williams, a 2014 Southeastern Conference All-Freshman Team honoree and the team's 2014-15 leader in points (13.7 ppg) and rebounds (6.1 rpg), is also back in the rotation after sitting out last season.
New to the roster is a pair of true freshmen and four transfer student-athletes. Jordan Lewis comes in as one of the most highly-touted signees out of the state of Florida after earning multiple player of the year honors. Joining Lewis is Ashley Knight, who stands at 6-5 and was ranked the No. 16 post in the nation in the espnW 100. Coco Knight and LaKyesha Stennis were added to the roster in late April after both having earned All-America honors at the junior college level. Alana da Silva, also a junior college All-American, hopped on board nearly one month later to complete the 2016-17 roster.
ABOUT WEST ALABAMA
West Alabama is playing its second exhibition game of the season Friday as the Tigers opened up with an 80-48 loss at Clemson on Sunday, Oct. 30.
Senior Catherine Taylor was the lone West Alabama player to score in double figures, finishing with 13 points.
West Alabama shot 29 percent from the floor, making 16-of-55 field goal attempts and was outrebounded by Clemson, 44-36.
The Tigers return All-Gulf South Conference honoree Ariel Wilson, who led the West Alabama in scoring, rebounding and assists per game in 2015-16. A starter in all 26 games after transferring from Belhaven, Wilson averaged 15.9 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game.
West Alabama is under the direction of Rusty Cram, who is in his third season as head coach of the Green Wave and 22nd season overall as a head coach. Prior head coaching stops include Georgia Southern and Belhaven. Cram was a two-time Southern Conference coach of the year (1998, 2001) and guided Georgia Southern to two regular season titles (1998, 2001), eight 15-win seasons and two 20-win seasons. He is the winningest women's basketball coach in Georgia Southern history.
#CATCHUSATCOLEMAN
On May 31, Alabama women's basketball announced it would be returning to Coleman Coliseum starting with the 2016-17 season. The Crimson Tide has played primarily at Foster Auditorium following the building's renovation in 2011.
The women's basketball team split time between Foster Auditorium and Coleman Coliseum from 1974-81, until permanently moving to Coleman from 1981-2011. The Crimson Tide reopened Foster with its game against Florida on Feb. 13, 2011, following an extensive renovation of the building. Since then, women's basketball has played all but four of its home games, which includes two season-opening doubleheaders with men's basketball and a pair of 5th Grade Fastbreak games, at Foster Auditorium.
CURRY RECEIVES CONTRACT EXTENSION
Head Coach Kristy Curry received a contract extension prior to the 2016-17 season, keeping her on as head coach of the Crimson Tide women's basketball team through 2020.
Each season under Curry has produced significant wins, beginning in 2014 when her team won seven Southeastern Conference games marking the most since the 2001-02 season. Included in those wins was the first in Lexington against Kentucky since 2002, the first against Georgia since 2004, snapping a 23-game losing streak to the Lady Bulldogs, and the first in program history at Vanderbilt's Memorial Gym. In 2014-15, the Tide reached double-digit wins in non-conference play for the first time since 2010, which included a victory over 12th-ranked Nebraska.
Perhaps the most significant win, however, was the 54-46 victory over Tennessee on Feb. 25, 2016. It was the first in the series for the Tide since 1984, ending a 42-game losing streak to the Lady Volunteers, and the first victory in the series in program history in Tuscaloosa. Later that year, Alabama also made it back to the postseason after having been out the five previous seasons.
CLASSROOM CHAMPION: QUANETRIA BOLTON
Heading into her junior season, Quanetria Bolton has been a key to Alabama women's basketball's quest to return to the elite level both at the Southeastern Conference and national level. She has also been an important part of the Crimson Tide's ongoing mission of being dominant in the classroom.
"Coach (Kristy) Curry and the staff really emphasize that we are student-athletes and that the student part of that comes first," Bolton said. "They keep us focused on academics and let us know that what we do in the classroom is first and foremost."
That emphasis on academics paid dividends when Bolton earned a summer grade point average of 3.468, helping pace the women's basketball team to an outstanding 3.58 team GPA for the summer.
Among the women's basketball players who attended classes this summer, all 11 posted better than a 3.0 GPA including Taylor Berry and Jordan Lewis who both hold career GPAs of 4.0. In addition to those two carrying a career 4.0, Trista Magee earned a 4.0, all A-pluses, for the summer.
