The crowd wasn’t bigger, but it was louder. Alabama head coach Kristy Curry wore another blazer, but it was houndstooth patterned. A win was still wanted, but more importantly, it was needed.
The Crimson Tide was able to walk away with a win against Tulane in the women’s NIT, 72-64.
Alabama junior Hannah Cook played true to her strengths and hit a three pointer for the second basket of the game and the tone was set. Ever since that moment, the crowd anticipated the next three pointer, so that they to stand up and cheer about it. The key to achieving revenge against Tulane after last year’s loss was to keep a constant sense of energy as a team.
“Remembering who ended our season last year, we tried to come out and be better than last year,” Nene Bolton said. “In our last game against Little Rock we didn’t come out strong so we needed a strong warm up to start the game.”
Alabama maintained a strong lead throughout the game, which may have been attributed to the 57.1 percent of its three pointers that Hannah Cook and Nene Bolton shot, while the Green Wave only made 29.4 percent of its three pointer attempts.
After the first quarter, the Crimson Tide lead by 10 points, 23-13. The game was fast paced and the energy from both teams remained consistent. Alabama was able to maintain a constant lead from the first buzzer until the final.
“It was a very fast paced game but that’s what happens when you play an SEC school as coaches say, they up the pressure and it was mainly just us taking care of the ball and we had nine or 10 turnovers, but it wasn’t enough for us,” Tulane junior Kolby Morgan said.
Thursday wat the 12th time in the series and the second year in a row in the WNIT that Alabama and Tulane have faced off. Last year the Green Wave beat the Crimson Tide by one point, 53-52 in the first round of the tournament on Tulane’s home court in Louisiana.
This season, the Crimson Tide has improved each week. The team has benefited from the play of five-time SEC Freshman of the Week Jordan Lewis in addition to fellow freshman Ashley Knight, who is ranked first in overall blocks in the SEC. Junior Ashley Williams has been a key to success in the tournament thus far, averaging a double-double of 17.0 points and 10.5 rebounds per game.
“Both teams have several new faces and they post players that are different and we obviously a different point guard and a different post player,” Curry said. “Different teams, but still very similar in the style and systems and I know we’ve learned from a year ago and it was different tonight and we found a way to stay composed down the stretch and last year we didn’t so that’s much growth by us.”
The Alabama Crimson Tide Tide will next play the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (17-14) at Georgia Tech on Sunday.
