The women’s basketball team won the first of three consecutive home games Saturday night against Arkansas-Pine Bluff 79-60 and pushed their record to 3-0 on the season.
“We’re getting enough shots, we’re still playing hard and that’s where we are right now with this team,” head coach Wendell Hudson said.
The game was closer than expected in the first half. The Tide led 29-24 with less than three minutes to go and pushed the score to 35-27 with a string of steals that led to easy buckets, resulting in an eight-point halftime lead.
“We started off too slow,” forward Kaneisha Horn said. “We got ourselves in a little hole, but we pulled it off. We just got to move onto the next game and hopefully do better.”
Sophomore guard Daisha Simmons said the team realized that they couldn’t play down to their opponent’s level and started off strong in the second half.
“I think we have to do a lot better,” Simmons said. “We got to stop playing down to our competition. We came out sluggish because we thought we were going to be able to walk all over them and we can’t think like that. We just have to come out and attack no matter who we play.”
Alabama continues its strong start to the season and leads the Southeastern Conference in many statistical categories. The Tide came into Saturday’s game averaging 81.5 points per game, making them the highest-scoring offense in the conference.
The Tide also leads the SEC in field goal percentage, defense, steals, turnover margin and offensive rebounding.
Alabama’s stingy defense made up for poor shooting from the field and free throw line. LaKendra Marsh led Arkansas-Pine Bluff with 16 points, but the Tide forced 40 APB turnovers and racked up 23 steals.
Junior guard Shafontaye Myers came into the game leading the SEC in steals, 3-point field goals made and was tied for scoring.
Myers struggled a bit with her shooting against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. She scored 11 points off of 4-20 shooting while making 3 of 16 three pointers.
“A good shooter never gets down on their self,” Myers said. “A good shooter will keep shooting until they find their rhythm. I feel like God is in control, so it allows me to shoot with confidence and that’s why I keep shooting like I do. I don’t get down on myself.”
“She’s one of those players that I’m never going to tell not to shoot the basketball,” Hudson said. “She can do some things and make a basket that probably nobody else can make.”
Hudson and company will study film before the team goes back to work on Sunday.
“I think a big key to take away from this game is that we need to think about why we were not as ready to play as we needed to be early,” Hudson said. “
The Tide will take on North Texas on Nov. 19 at 6:30 p.m. in Foster Auditorium.
