Tuscaloosa, Ala. The Alabama women’s basketball team takes a three-game win streak into Tuesday night’s matchup with the Stetson Hatters out of Deland, Florida, a suburb of Tampa, a streak that started with a thrilling overtime victory at SMU, that was followed up by two blowout wins at home versus Clemson and Grambling State.
The Tide now stand at 4-1 on the season with their only loss coming way out west against the University of Utah. Tuesday’s opponent, however, has had a much more troublesome go at it so far losing all five of their games this season.
Although Stetson has remained winless so far, Alabama head coach Kristy Curry is not taking the Hatters lightly. “They are very talented, by January I expect them to compete for their league.” As they did just a season ago making it all the way to the Atlantic Sun conference championship game before suffering an intense 63-55 loss in overtime to North Florida.
Their late season success allowed them to qualify for the postseason WBI invitational tournament, where they fell 49-33 in the first round to South Alabama.
Those two losses included, the Hatters are at stake of losing their eighth consecutive game, complete parody to their sixteen-game winning streak that occurred just five seasons ago.
A seemingly perfect storm for the Crimson Tide, a red-hot Alabama offense averaging 72.2 points per game lining up with an ice cold one in Stetson only averaging 54.4. Even being the heavy favorite on Tuesday evening, Coach Curry is focused on holding her team to a different standard.
“I think our goal is to win the next day, win the day…if we can have the best day we can with our energy and effort on and off the floor I feel like that will impact ninety-four feet.” Ninety-four feet being the length of a standard college basketball court.
Winning the day on all cylinders has been the story for her team during the past couple weeks, with three different players averaging over nine points per game including leading scorer Jasmine Walker who had her career high (24) the last time Alabama took to the hardwood.
Only in her second season with Bama, Walker has emerged as one of the team leaders playing an average of 31.8 minutes per game. She understands what it takes to be a captain and looks to share her knowledge with aspiring teammates.
“Just being able to bring more energy, do the little things on the court and lead by example.”
The Crimson Tide will look to match their longest streak since December of last year with a win against the Hatters. Stetson on the other hand is just looking to stop the bleeding on their young season.
Tip-off is scheduled for 7 pm at Coleman Coliseum, and will be free for all students to attend. Those that don’t currently attend the Capstone can pay a 10$ general admission fee to watch Alabama continue their fast-paced, high scoring start to the season.
We’ll have full-coverage after the game, including the entire postgame press conference and much more on gameday.ua.edu, along with Youtube and Twitter as well.
(Photo courtesy of Alabama Athletics)
