Following a victory over the Auburn Tigers last Thursday, the women’s basketball team came out with a 61-52 victory over the Mississippi Rebels on Sunday.
“It was the tale of two halves,” head coach Wendall Hudson said. “We got off to a great start. I thought we came out excited. We stepped out there on the floor and we were ready to play. There were no questions that we were ready to play.”
The Tide forced 12 Ole Miss turnovers in the first half and had six steals and three blocks, which led to easy Alabama baskets. With 9:57 left in the first half, Alabama got ahead 23-7 following a couple of steals, layups and hustle plays, being relentless and getting to the loose ball. The Tide led by as many as 23 in the first half and following a shot at the buzzer by senior guard Varisia Raffington, went into halftime with a 36-20 lead.
“We wanted to continue to work hard and have intensity coming back out,” junior Erika Russell said. “We just wanted to continue to play the same [way] we played in the first half and get the W.”
Freshman forward Kaneisha Horn said, “We wanted to keep the intensity up [going into the second half], but we kind of let up a little and that’s how they came back; but we pulled it out.”
The Rebels cut the lead to five points by the 9:10 mark in the second half. Mississippi’s Valencia McFarland went to the free throw line and made the first before missing the second that was rebounded and put back in by Tori Slusher. The put-back made the score 46-44, but the Rebels never got closer than 46-45 at the 7:35 mark.
“We were outscored 19-2 during that one stretch in the second half,” Hudson said. “Mentally, you have to make the decision to grind it out or let the other team come back and take it. I thought it was a credit to the young ladies who played an awful lot of minutes that stepped up and decided to take this thing back and did a real good job.”
The Tide credits defense as being the key to the game. They forced 22 Ole Miss turnovers, including 12 steals. They had four blocks and a number of deflections while applying full court zone pressure before falling back into a man defense.
“Defense — that’s what helped us,” Horn said. “Defense helped us offensively because we were getting a lot of steals and transitioning.”
Hudson said, “I think defensively, that kept us in the game the whole time. I think that got us out to such a great start. We were really playing well and they turned the ball over.”
Russell led Alabama with 21 points. Tierney Jenkins pulled in 10 points along with 10 rebounds, while forward Horn had 16 points to go with seven rebounds. Nikki Byrd, who scored 16 points and had 18 rebounds, led Ole Miss.
The Tide is on a three-game winning streak and will take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs Thursday at 6 at Foster Auditorium in the last home game for the season.
