By outreach@cw.ua.edu (Molly Catherine Walsh)

The Alabama women’s basketball team got to see their hard work pay off on Sunday when they achieved a win against Ole Miss 65-57. The Crimson Tide will close out it’s two game road trip when it takes on Vanderbilt (10-0) at memorial gym in Nashville, Tenn. on Thursday.

The Crimson Tide will go into Thursday’s game with a 15-5 overall record and a 3-4 record in the SEC. Alabama’s record in SEC road games is 2-1 after a at Ole Miss and Missouri and a loss at South Carolina.

“We are trying to do something we have not done yet and that is to put back to back road wins together” said Alabama head coach Kristy Curry.

As for the Vanderbilt Commodores, they will play Thursday’s game with a 10-0 overall record and a 0-7 record in the SEC. The Commodores have played some close games this season and have lost by six points or less in five out of their seven losses.

“Vanderbilt’s a very difficult place to play,” Curry said. “We understand that their record is deceiving, it’s still to be a huge challenge for us as we go up there tomorrow night”.

The Commodores are led by junior Rachel Bell who averaged 12 points per game and senior Marqu’es Webb who averages 9.1 rebounds per game. Vanderbilt freshman Cierra Walker leads the team in assists with 3.3 per game.

Alabama has taken home five of the 11 SEC Freshman of the Week awards this season as Jordan Lewis collected her fourth honor on Tuesday, and fellow freshman Ashley Knight earned hers on December 20.

Junior Ashley Williams is now only 67 points away from being Alabama’s 25th, 1,000 point scorer, that would make ther the 13th Crimson Tide student-athlete to achieve that milestone in 3 years or less.

“We still have a lot of games to go, so I think just taking it one day at a time and with each game we’ll be fine,” said Alabama junior Ashley Williams. “We have a goal every year to make it to the tournament, I think we’ll be great as long as we take it one day at a time.”

Vanderbilt’s head coach Stephanie White spent the last 10 years as a coach in the WNBA, most recently as the head coach of the Indiana Fever. White played five seasons herself in the WNBA after a college career at Purdue, where she achieved national Player of the Year awards as well as a national championship on 1999.

Alabama’s Kristy Curry and Kelly Curry coached the Purdue Boilmakers from 1999-2006. Vanderbilt head coach Stephanie White was on the 1999 national championship team as was Vanderbilt assistant Kelly Komara (1998-2002), Komara finished her career under Curry in addition to playing with Alabama assistant Shereka Wright.

“If we continue to do well on the road maybe I’ll just move everything from Tuscaloosa to on the road.” Curry said. “At the end of the day I believe in consistency and when you prepare consistently eventually you hope to play consistently”.

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Source:: The Crimson White Sports