Alabama
Vanderbilt University
Alabama Women’s Basketball Opens SEC Tournament Play Against Vanderbilt on Wednesday
2/28/2017 2:26:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Crimson Tide and Commodores to tipoff tournament at 10 a.m. CT in Bon Secours Wellness Arena
GREENVILLE, S.C. – The Alabama women's basketball team will play its opening round game of the 2017 Southeastern Conference Women's Basketball Tournament on Wednesday against Vanderbilt. The 12th-seeded Crimson Tide and 13th-seeded Commodores will tip the tournament off at 10 a.m. CT at Bon Secours Wellness Arena.
THE BROADCAST
Wednesday's game will air live on the SEC Network with Courtney Lyle, Tamika Catchings and Steffi Sorensen on the broadcast. The game can also be heard on the Crimson Tide Sports Network with Roger Hoover calling the action.
OPENING TIP
Alabama heads into the 2017 SEC Women's Basketball Tournament as the No. 12 seed after finishing with a 5-11 record in league play.
The Crimson Tide and Commodores last met in the SEC tournament in 2015 in North Little Rock, Ark. Vanderbilt came away with the 66-56 victory in the first round of action. This will be the sixth meeting between the two programs in the tournament with the others coming in 1980, 84, 85, 2006 and 15. The Commodores lead this series, 3-2.
Juniors Hannah Cook and Ashley Williams are both close to reaching the 1,000 point milestone. Cook currently stands at 978 points, 22 away from 1,000, while Williams is 25 points away from the mark at 975.
Freshmen Jordan Lewis and Ashley Knight were both named to the SEC All-Freshman Team on Tuesday. This is the first time in program history that Alabama has placed multiple student-athletes on the team and its first selection since Ashley Williams in 2014.
Freshman Ashley Knight has 68 blocks on the year, which ties her with Yolanda Watkins (1993-94) for the most in a single season at Alabama. Knight's 68 rejections are the most in the SEC this season and rank her 21st nationally in that category.
ABOUT VANDERBILT
Vanderbilt heads into the SEC tournament with a 14-15 overall record and finished with a 4-12 mark in conference play. The Commodores have won two of their last three and three of their last five games.
Junior Rachel Bell leads the team in scoring with an average of 10.6 points per game, while senior Marqu'es Webb hauls in a team-best 9.0 rebounds per contest.
Vanderbilt leads the SEC in three-point field goal percentage at 39.1 percent per game. The Commodores are also fourth in free throw percentage at 75.0 percent.
Vanderbilt is under the direction of first-year head coach Stephanie White. White spent the previous 10 years as a coach in the WNBA and most recently head coach of the Indiana Fever. She also had three stops as an assistant in the college ranks at Ball State, Kansas State and Toledo. White played five seasons in the WNBA after a standout career at Purdue, where she earned national Player of the Year accolades and a national champion in 1999.
