Alabama women’s basketball’s season ended last week, with the team losing to Maryland 111-108 in double overtime in the round of 32.
Despite the rough ending, however, there was plenty to celebrate this season for the Crimson Tide, which took another step forward in head coach Kristy Curry’s 12th season in Tuscaloosa.
Alabama finished the season 24-9 with a .727 win percentage, and one would have to go back to 1996-97 to find a better mark. The Crimson Tide also had its most wins in a regular season this century with 23.
Heading into the year, expectations were high. Leading scorer and team leader Sarah Ashlee Barker was back with sharpshooter Aaliyah Nye for their fifth season. Key pieces in forward Essence Cody and guard Karly Weathers were back, and the team landed guard Zaay Green out of the transfer portal for her seventh and final season of college basketball.
This all culminated in Alabama being ranked in the preseason AP Top 25 at No. 24, which was the first time the team had been ranked since 1999.
“I’ve been a part of programs that have been established and built, and I’m very proud of how we’ve built this,” Curry said about the ranking.
The group came out of the gates hot, winning the first nine games of the season, but finally suffered a loss in a road game against California. But then the Crimson Tide responded strongly and finished the non-conference slate 13-1, which was the team’s best start in program history.
However, the Crimson Tide’s journey wouldn’t be smooth sailing. They would lose Barker to a leg injury in the first game of SEC play against Florida, and she would be sidelined for the next couple of weeks.
Despite losing Barker, the team impressively held it together without her, going 4-2, including road wins over Ole Miss and Arkansas in the six games she was absent, only losing to then-No. 2 South Carolina and No. 5 Texas.
“It’s a credit to those kids for stepping up when their sister was down,” Curry said. “When you go back and look at that stretch, it’s incredibly special.”
When Barker came back from injury, things got surprisingly very murky. Even though she dropped a then-career-high 36 points against Vanderbilt, the Crimson Tide shockingly lost at home and then at Kentucky the next game, the first time this season the team dropped two games in a row.
Curry’s team responded strongly, winning the next four games by an average of 23 points. The dominance finally came to a halt when the Crimson Tide lost on the road at Tennessee.
This stretch came with broken records, as Nye broke the program record for the most 3s made in a game when she made nine against Florida. Nye kept smashing records, as a couple of weeks later, she broke the all-time Alabama career record for most 3-pointers made, sinking her 273rd 3-point basket in a 66-50 win over Auburn.
“To do that in three years, I want y’all to think about that. Three years, not four,” Curry said. “The work that she puts in beyond practice, the time that she shoots when nobody is watching, it’s just been amazing to work.”
The season’s high point came in the next game against then-No. 7 LSU, which was Barker, Nye and Green’s last game at Coleman Coliseum. The Crimson Tide defeated the Tigers 88-85 in overtime. The win marked Alabama’s first over a top 10 opponent in 13 years.
Although the Crimson Tide finished the regular season with a loss at Oklahoma, hopes were high heading into the SEC Tournament, with the team set up for a first-round matchup against Florida. But though Alabama went 2-0 in the teams’ regular season series, the Gators surprisingly emerged victorious and sent Curry’s squad home earlier than expected.
The loss blew Alabama’s chances of hosting the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, and instead it traveled to College Park in Maryland as a No. 5 seed.
The team got back on track in the first round against Green Bay, winning 81-67. That set up a second-round matchup against the hosting Maryland Terrapins.
The Crimson Tide blew a 17-point lead and lost to the Terrapins in double overtime. But the story of the night was Barker, who scored a career-high 45 points, the most of any SEC player in tournament history. This included a memorable moment when the Crimson Tide was down 3 with 0.7 left at the end of the first overtime, and Barker needed to make all three of her free throw attempts.
Like the leader she is, she made all three and kept the Crimson Tide alive just a little bit longer. Though her college career ended after that game, Barker became an Alabama legend.
Despite the sour taste of defeat, Curry expressed postgame how proud she was of this season’s Alabama team.
“I don’t think you understand how much I love and I’m so incredibly proud of that group of people in our locker room,” Curry said. “They had an amazing season, and I don’t want this one day to take away from what they’ve accomplished during their journey at Alabama. I love them all very much.”
Whatever comes next, this season was another step forward as Curry continues to build this program each season. This year’s squad brought some very special memories along the way.
