Alabama women’s basketball won its season opener on Nov. 13, cruising to a 96-44 win over Alabama A&M.
Sophomore Quanetria Bolton recorded her first career double-double, scoring 19 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.
“I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity,” Bolton said. “My teammates were finding me and I just wanted to finish.”
Bolton’s 19 points were a game-high as well as a career-high. Six of her teammates finished in double figures. Sophomore Karyla Middlebrook was close behind her in scoring, tallying up 15 points, six rebounds and five assists. Sophomore Hannah Cook did most of her work behind the arc, knocking down four three pointers en route to a 14 finish. Senior Khaijah scored 13 points while also adding 4 steals to her stat line.
Freshmen Shaquera Wade and C’Coriea Foy were both in double figures tonight, with both players scoring 10 points on the night. Sophomore Meoshonti Knight tallied up 10 points in the win.
“It is exciting to see this group mature every day,” said head coach Kristy Curry.
Alabama was able to once again use defense to earn easy buckets on the offensive end. The team totaled 35 points off of turnovers in this game. They decided to stick to their up-tempo offense, while applying pressure on the defensive end from start to finish.
“We get a lot more offensive opportunities through our defense,” Middlebrook said.
Alabama came out of the gate hot, outscoring Alabama A&M 32-10 in the first quarter. They forced 10 turnovers in the first half which led to a lot of easy points. A margin that only continue to grow throughout the game until finally the team ended the night with a 52 point win over the bulldogs.
Sophomore Diamante Martinez was rigid on the inside, earning 6 of the Alabama’s 14 team blocks. Alabama also forced 28 overall turnovers and held the Bulldogs to just 26.1 percent from the field. The team also won the rebounding battle, grabbing 52 rebounds with 20 of those being on the offensive end.
“It’s not so much about who we are playing,” Curry said. “It’s not so much about the score. It’s how we need to play, and I really liked the way we played today.”
Alabama shot 43.6 pecent from the field (34-78) from the field, while also shooting 64.7 percent from the free throw line. Alabama will be back in action at home on Nov. 16 against Appalachian State in Foster Auditorium.
