Alabama has its second SEC win, and it ended the same way the last win did with a blocked shot. On Thursday, the Crimson Tide took down Missouri 67-64 at home. The last time Alabama won was five games ago when junior guard Khadijah Carter blocked Auburn’s last shot as time expired.
A game that featured 10 lead changes in the second half came down to a block in the last second by junior forward Nikki Hegstetter.
“The weight is off, and now it is time to get rolling,” senior guard Sharin Rivers said. “That should be our mindset just keep winning games. That’s all we have to do now just win. We already did it. We proved we can win.”
Rivers hit a go-ahead three pointer with almost no time on the clock. With less than 10 seconds remaining, Alabama had the ball down 64-62. After a failed attempt down low by redshirt freshman guard Karyla Middlebrook, Rivers got the ball on the three-point line and drained the shot for the lead with seven seconds remaining to take the lead 65-64.
“I just told myself if you just get to touch the ball and take the shot it’s going in, like you’re going to make this shot, and that is exactly what happened,” Rivers said.
Missouri drew up a play to get it to its leading scorer, sophomore Sierra Michaelis, under the basket, but Hegstetter was ready and she made the block while being fouled with less than a second remaining.
For Missouri, Michaelis had a career night with 28 points on 10-for-15 shooting. Michaelis was sharp from long range going 5-5 beyond the arc. Senior Morgan Eye also had five three-pointers, and was second on the team in scoring with 19 points. Missouri as a whole shot 40 percent from long range, but it was all for nothing.
“They just have so many players that can hurt you on any given night, and we were just fortunate enough down the stretch to keep them off-balance enough,” Alabama coach Kristy Curry said.
The first half was almost identical to the second half. The Crimson Tide came out a little slow, and Missouri took advantage of it with an 11-3 lead. It was a spark off the bench that brought Alabama back into contention. Freshman guard Meoshonti Knight came out and sunk her first three shots for seven points to tie the game at 15. Alabama exploded on offense and even held a nine-point lead at one point, but Missouri cut into it again to end the half down 35-31. Middlebrook started with eight points in the half and eventually finished the game with a team-high 17 points.
Alabama (13-13, 2-9 SEC) heads to No. 15 Texas A&M on Monday for a 6 p.m tip-off.
