Four Alabama players finished with double-digit scoring as the Crimson Tide took an 81-52 win over the Tulane Green Wave on Wednesday evening.
Tulane came into the game 4-5, most recently taking its largest win of the season in a 24-point romp over New Orleans on Sunday. Green Wave head coach Ashley Langford is in the second year of turning around her alma mater, having brought the team from 12 wins to 17 in 2024-25. The losing record could potentially have been deceptive- of those five losses, three were by single digits and two were at the hands of SEC teams.
Alabama, which came in with a 12-0 record for the first time in program history, got off to a solid start and hit its season-long marks in the first half. It shot 6/17 from 3, meeting its 35% average, and went 14/31 overall from the field, a 45% clip only slightly below its 48% norm. The scoring attack was evenly distributed, with six players scoring at least 2 but nobody scoring more than 6, which came from guard Diana Collins.
Offense wasn’t an issue early on. The Green Wave mitigated the offensive success and stayed in the game by making three 3s in the first four minutes, making it an 11-9 near-deadlock in favor of Alabama at the halfway mark of the first quarter.
The gap widened gradually across the rest of the first half, as the Crimson Tide continued its steady offensive attack and strung together stops on the defensive end. After going into the first quarter break with a 7-point lead, the team expanded it to 17 by halftime, all while maintaining the even scoring load — Collins and guard Karly Weathers both had 6, while guard Ace Austin and forward Naomi Jones scored 8.
“Really great team effort today,” head coach Kristy Curry said, highlighting the team’s balanced scoring via 20 assists on 28 total baskets for the game.
Langford called a timeout in the first two minutes of the third quarter, evidently frustrated with her team’s initial effort coming out of the break. Unfortunately for Tulane, the rejuvenation effort failed to pay dividends, as the rest of the third saw the lead remain steadily in the range of 20 points. Alabama’s advantage peaked at 23 and never sank below 16, and at the buzzer the team was up 60-40.
Ten minutes later, following a fourth quarter in which the team hit three from deep and held the Green Wave to only 12 points, Alabama walked off the floor with the 29-point victory.
One notable aspect of the game was that, for longer stretches, it became a battle of zone defenses. The Crimson Tide, which has resorted to its matchup zone at certain points in games after struggling in man-to-man, got into it right out of the gate. Tulane played long bouts of 2-3 along with its base man defense.
Regardless of which defense, Tulane showed to be one of the more physical teams Alabama has faced this season, crashing the glass hard on both offense and defense and being pesky in half-court settings.
As Curry hit on, the ball movement trend continued for Alabama through the remainder of the game, with the Crimson Tide team averaging 14.9 assists per game finishing with 20, its most since racking up 21 against Samford on Nov. 19. Collins, Weathers, Jones and guard Jessica Timmons all finished with 10 or more points, while Austin had 8 and guard Ta’Mia Scott scored 7.
“We try our best to play for each other,” Collins said of her squad’s teamwork. “Continuing to play for the person next to us is the reason we’re playing so well.”
However, a trend of offensive rebounds given up also continued. Alabama surrenders 9.3 on average, and it gave up nearly that amount in the first half alone, with Tulane grabbing eight. The Crimson Tide gave up 15 on the game, its new season high.
“Offensive rebounding is something we’ve got to continue to improve at,” Curry said. She forecast the offensive glass’s importance in the team’s next game, saying, “We’re going to need to do a better job against Troy.”
Alabama will look to continue its historic unbeaten record against the Trojans on Sunday. The game is set to tip off at 2:00 p.m. CT and can be watched on SEC Network+.
