After a down-to-the-wire game, the Alabama women’s basketball team continued its losing streak, falling to the Florida Gators, 67-61, at Foster Auditorium.
Sunday’s game marked the eighth consecutive loss for the Crimson Tide. The Tide’s last win came against Auburn in January.
Unlike in recent games, Alabama showed improvement throughout both halves. Though the team lost, the Tide played as a synchronized team. Three Crimson Tide players recorded double-digit points, but it was not enough.
“We talked to the team about playing hard,” head coach Wendell Hudson said. “They are doing that. The problem is that we can’t get over the hump. We’re doing a lot of good things, but we’re not shooting the basketball during the situations where we need to shoot.”
The team’s improvements helped them keep up against the Gators. At the end of the first half, Alabama was down by one against Florida. The 32-31 score helped Alabama motivate itself during the second half.
During the second half, Alabama lead for more than 11 minutes. As the Gators slowly crept back up the scoreboard, the Tide couldn’t keep up the momentum to finish out the game.
Junior Shafontaye Meyers led all scorers with 15 points, while junior Jasmine Robinson added 11 points. Daisha Simmons, who usually leads the Tide in scoring, was unable to score any points during the game but recorded a team-high seven assists. Meghan Perkins put in 14 points. Redshirt sophomore Kaneisha Horn and freshman Nikki Hegstetter had six rebounds each.
Redshirt sophomore Kayla Lewis registered a double-double for Florida, finishing with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
“It’s hard [to lose],” Meyers said. “We played hard but we learned from this game. We have to stay positive.”
Alabama shot 34.8 percent from the floor, its highest total in over two games. The Tide shot a low 57.1 percent from the charity stripe.
“Free throw-wise, I thought that we missed a couple of free throws that could have helped us,” Hudson said. “We’ll get the shots that we need to get, but we need to make the shots critical to winning.”
Alabama’s loss puts them now at 12-15 overall and 2-12 SEC. The Tide will travel to LSU Thursday to play the Tigers.
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