No. 25 Alabama women’s basketball fell to No. 3 South Carolina on Thursday, despite an impressive second quarter.
South Carolina came out of the gate aggressively, putting the first points on the board and quickly racking up 21. Alabama was unable to find its footing and was reduced to .471 points per possession during the first quarter.
“We just weren’t physically able to make place at times, and they were really able to have their will with us,” head coach Kristy Curry said.
Coming into the second quarter, Alabama seemingly woke up, having its best quarter of the game. The Crimson Tide came back onto the court and immediately went on an 11-0 run during the first two minutes of the quarter. South Carolina maintained its momentum, though, putting up another 21 points in the second.
The Crimson Tide tried to keep the momentum from the second going into the third, ending the quarter with an 8-0 run the last two minutes of the game. During that run, the Crimson Tide made all five of its attempted field goals.
South Carolina’s scoring slowed down during the third, with the team only putting 15 points on the board during the quarter.
During the fourth, Alabama seemingly lost its previous momentum, being pushed into almost a six-minute scoring drought by South Carolina. The Crimson Tide managed to make only two of 12 field goals attempted during the entire quarter.
Turnover issues plagued Alabama again, with 20 turnovers committed. South Carolina took full advantage of this and scored 23 of its points off these turnovers.
Even during Alabama’s best quarter, the Crimson Tide still committed nine turnovers, allowing 10 points to be gained off of them.
“When you’re playing a team that is as talented and as deep and as good as South Carolina, it’s a game of mistakes,” Curry said. “You have to play really perfect basketball, and we just weren’t able to have enough perfect offensive possessions, and perfect stops at critical moments.”
Alabama will travel to Gainesville to take on Florida on Sunday. Tipoff is slated for 11 a.m CT on SEC Network+.
