Jan. 6, 2010

Final Stats

OXFORD, Miss. - The women's basketball team cut a 21-point Mississippi lead in the second half to 10 but couldn't get any closer as the Crimson Tide fell 70-56 Wednesday at Tad Smith Coliseum. With the loss, Alabama drops to 8-7 overall and 0-2 against Southeastern Conference, while the Rebels improve to 10-5 on the season at 1-1 against league opponents.

"We didn't play very good basketball in the first half," said head coach Wendell Hudson. "We turned the ball over too much and Ole Miss capitalized on that. They also got to the free throw line a lot, and we can't beat anyone when we allow those two things to happen. We started hitting our stride in the second half, but we only have 40 minutes on the clock. Had we given the same effort we did in the final 10 minutes earlier in the game this could have been a different outcome."

Sophomore Ericka Russell finished with a season-high 22 points, including five three-pointers, all of which she hit in the second half. Both juniors Tierney Jenkins and Varisia Raffington added nine points. Senior Dedrea Magee and Raffington had six rebounds apiece to lead Alabama in boards, while junior LaToya King dished out four of the Tide's 13 assists.

"Ericka (Russell) played just like she practices," explained Hudson. "She did a great job not only scoring, but also playing defense."

Following an early Mississippi lead, Alabama jumped in front at the 15:47 mark thanks to a bucket from junior Katie Hancock setting the score at 6-4. From that point on, the Tide would go cold from the floor until 6:09 allowing the Rebels to build a comfortable 15-point buffer. Mississippi would lead by as much as 17 in the opening 20 minutes and would head into halftime up by just as many at 36-19.

Alabama came out strong in the second hitting a pair of three-pointers, first from Raffington followed by Russell, but the Tide couldn't get a stop on the defensive end. The Rebels would take their largest lead of the game at 21 points with 12:44 remaining, however Alabama would not back down and used a 12-3 run to pull within 10 points at 5:54 with a layup from sophomore Carmen McCoy bringing the score to 58-48. The late-game surge would come up short as the Tide ran out of clock giving Mississippi the win.

After hitting just 28.6 percent of its shots in the first half, Alabama managed to connect on 45.2 percent in the second frame for an overall game percentage of 37.3. The Tide narrowly outrebounded Mississippi winning the battle of the boards 42-41, while the Rebels doubled up the Tide in steals 14-7. Another difference maker in the contest was free throws as Mississippi collected 26 points from the charity stripe off 33 attempts. Alabama toed the line just 12 times in the game making six of those attempts.

Next up, the Tide hosts South Carolina Sunday, Jan. 10 in Coleman Coliseum. Tipoff is slated for 2:00 p.m. (CST).