February 4, 2021

Coleman Coliseum

By Austin Rader

The Alabama Crimson Tide hosted the Georgia Bulldogs in a women’s basketball game against two evenly matched teams. Going into Thursday’s night matchup, both teams were tied for 8th in the conference in scoring averaging 82 points-per-game, and both teams had a 5-4 record in conference play.

Bama came out of the gate hot. Getting the small crowd involved, they built a nice lead and took control of the game from the tip-off. Georgia battled back, going to star Center Jenna Staiti early. Alabama was in a 2-3 zone and Georgia was settling for tough mid-range shots. Alabama outscored Georgia in the first and second quarters. Turnovers were the key early in the game, as Alabama committed 19 total turnovers (Georgia only had 13). Majority of those turnovers were in the first half turnovers that led to the Lady Bulldogs scoring in transition to cut the lead.

Alabama held a small halftime lead but lost it early in the third quarter. Que Morrison for Georgia became the x-factor. She finished with 25 points in the game, doubling her season average of 10.1 points-per-game. Jasmine Walker and Ariyah Copeland both had double-doubles. Walker led the team in scoring with 24 points while Copeland finished with 17.

At the end of the 4th quarter, Jasmine Walker and Que Morrison traded baskets and a Mikayla Coombs missed runner at the buzzer sent the game to overtime. This was the fifth time in five years that these teams went into overtime.

In the extra period, Que Morrison took over scoring the majority of the Lady Bulldogs points and hit the dagger with a mid-range basket. It was a game of runs and Georgia’s run in the extra period proved to be the difference with Que Morrison taking center stage.

Turnovers hurt the Tide

Alabama’s 2-3 zone was working early in the game but turnovers kept Georgia in the game in the first half. In the 2nd half the Tide cleaned up their turnovers a little but it still came back to bite them. They out rebounded the Lady Bulldogs 46-34 and were just as physical. They couldn’t keep up athletically especially in transition.

Negatives into a Positive

This is Alabama’s third straight loss however all three losses have come against ranked teams. The effort was there this past game, and the Crimson Tide put themselves in a great position to win. After the game Coach Curry spoke on the loss. “Obviously, there are a few little areas where we need to improve, but I don’t think you can fault the effort in that locker room and the emotion I saw in there a little bit ago. We’ll pick ourselves up and reset at midnight – the Alabama way.”

On to the next

Alabama will host Ole Miss on Thursday, February 11th in Coleman Coliseum. The game is set to tipoff at 6 p.m. CT on SEC Network+.