No. 20 Alabama women’s basketball lost its final regular-season game to No. 13 Oklahoma on Sunday, 91-84, in a highly physical clash.
“You’re not going to win in the SEC when the home team shoots 31 free throws and you shoot 14,” Alabama head coach Kristy Curry said.
Both teams were aggressive, but Oklahoma center Raegan Beers was a difficult player to guard near the basket because of her 6-4 stature and how frequently she drew a whistle.
Curry said that Beers is “very talented” but added that Sunday’s game was not called by the rule book. Alabama was called for 23 personal fouls in this game, giving Curry flashbacks to last week’s controversially officiated game against No. 7 LSU.
“What I witnessed this week is unbelievable,” Curry said. “I feel like I’ve been to a bar fight Thursday and Sunday.”
Oklahoma fired from behind the arc, sinking five triples including a deep pull-up jumper. However, the first quarter quickly slipped away from Alabama as the team struggled to keep up with the Sooners in the scoring column and shot 7/19 from the field.
When Alabama tried to play tighter perimeter defense, Oklahoma passed the ball to Beers. The Crimson Tide’s bigs could not stop her powerful post moves, and she went 4/4 in the paint.
The Sooners scored 10 unanswered points and increased their lead to 15 points. Alabama guard Zaay Green ended her team’s scoring drought with a short jumper, and forward Essence Cody scored the final points of the first quarter with a layup. Alabama trailed 28-18 after the opening period.
The second quarter was a completely different story. Alabama’s 3-pointers began to drop, as the team hit five of them.
Green played all 10 minutes in the second frame, and she hit her stride on the offensive end, shooting 4/7 from the field to go with a pair of free throws. Green finished the first half as Alabama’s leading scorer with 19 points.
“They were face guarding Aaliyah and really making it hard on her,” Curry said. “Had to have somebody else step up, and Zaay did a nice job of that,” Curry said.
Alabama outscored Oklahoma 27-17 in the second. The game was tied at 45 after two quarters of play.
After scoring only one point in the previous quarter, Beers returned to work in the paint for Oklahoma. In the third quarter, she made two layups over Alabama defenders and drew three shooting fouls, shooting 4/5 at the foul stripe.
The Crimson Tide made 3-point shots to stay in the game. Cody nailed her eighth triple of the season from the top of the key, Green connected on two 3-pointers and guard Aaliyah Nye hit one as well.
Despite the excellent shooting from behind the arc, Alabama trailed 71-66 with one quarter left.
Nye hit her third 3-pointer to give the Crimson Tide its first points of the final quarter, and Alabama did not make another field goal for four minutes.
The Crimson Tide still had no answer for Beers down low, as she made two more layups to push her scoring total to 22 points.
Guard Sarah Ashlee Barker played her best basketball in the fourth quarter, scoring 8 points to keep Alabama in arm’s length of Oklahoma.
Nye and guard Karly Weathers each knocked down a triple in the fourth quarter, but the fouls and free throws made it difficult for the Crimson Tide to take back the lead. Alabama committed nine personal fouls in the fourth, resulting in eight free throws from Oklahoma. The Sooners held on to win the game by 7.
Green finished the game with 27 points for the Crimson Tide, and Barker was behind her with 20. Alabama was outrebounded 47-35 and shot 40% from the field to Oklahoma’s 46%.
“There’s a lot of competitiveness, positivity, energy and effort that everyone has right now, and that’s what we can control,” Curry said.
Next up for Alabama is the SEC Tournament in Greenville, South Carolina. The tournament begins on Wednesday and continues through Sunday.
