When Alabama took the court on Monday, the team knew it was going to have to play its best game to take down the No. 3 South Carolina Gamecocks. Sometimes, even when a team executes well, shots are just not able to fall.
“You have to knock down looks,” said Alabama head coach Kristy Curry. “ You have to knock down open looks.”
Alabama’s shooting woes started from the very beginning of the game. The Crimson Tide opened the game shooting just 2-16 from the field in the first quarter. South Carolina took advantage early and led wire to wire in its 66-46 victory.
“We got the shots that we wanted,” said sophomore Meo Knight. “We just have to make our open shots. We didn’t make our open shots tonight and that was the difference maker in the game.”
Alabama’s inability to score stretched across the entire team. The team only had one player in double figures with freshman Shaquera Wade scoring 11 points in the loss. Every player on Alabama’s team shot under 40 percent, but Sophomore Karyla Middlebrook believes the team can take something positive away from a poor shooting performance.
“You know you got those opportunities and that you have the ability to fix that yourself,” she said. “It is not something South Carolina prevented us from doing. We just have to be ready to be in the gym tomorrow and work.”
Size was also a big factor in South Carolina’s win. Three Gamecocks were able to finish with over 10 rebounds in the game, and junior Alaina Coates posted a career-high 18 rebounds in her team’s win.
“I noticed [Alabama] wasn’t as aggressively boxing out,” said Coates. “I was able to get the long rebounds.”
With the loss, Alabama has now lost eight of its last nine. The team now moves to just 3-11 in SEC play.
Curry believes the team will be able to contend with opponents like South Carolina in the future.
“We will have opportunities against these guys in the future,” she said. “We looking forward to learning from tonight and hopefully the next opportunity we get against them, we will have so much to take away from tonight and learn from it.”
Alabama does not have a lot of time to think about this loss, with Tennessee coming to Foster Auditorium on Thursday. The team will have to prepare for the back end of arguably its toughest two-game stretch of the season.
“You want to coach against the best and play against the best,” Curry said. “That’s what this league is night in and night out. The game that matters is the next game.”
