Alabama women’s basketball, with its newly minted No. 21 ranking in the AP Top 25 poll, took a 74-63 win over the Missouri Tigers on the road Monday night.
Head coach Kristy Curry called it a “gritty road win,” lauding her team’s ability to “weather runs” and hold the Tigers at arm’s length over the course of the game.
The Crimson Tide jumped out to an early lead, winning the first quarter 22-11 while shooting 7/13 from the field and a notable 7/8 from the free throw line. Guards Karly Weathers, who would go on to score a team-leading 23 points and Ta’Mia Scott, both notched 5 in the opening period.
Following a Missouri layup that gave the team a 9-7 lead, Alabama closed the first with a 15-2 run. However, the Tigers countered with a 16-2 run of their own in the second, turning a 30-13 deficit with 6:57 left in the frame to a mere 32-29 score going into the break.
Weathers was still leading the way at halftime with 7 points, followed by freshman Ace Austin with 6. With long-term stagnation over the last seven minutes of the half, the Crimson Tide went to the locker room with a 35.3% field goal rate, including an uncharacteristically low 1/7 from the 3-point line. Missouri was marginally better, sitting at 36.4% and 3/9 from deep, but it looked to carry its scoring momentum into the rest of the game.
The story of the second half can be told with a variety of focuses. Alabama upped its field goal shooting to 50% and went 5/10 from 3, an efficiency that’s hard to find in anything but a winning team’s box score. Weathers scored 16 points on 6/8 from the field and never came off the floor, playing all 20 possible second-half minutes.
Scott and guard Jess Timmons chipped in 12 and 10 points, respectively, over the third and fourth quarters, combining with Weathers to form a scoring trio dynamic enough to stymie the Tigers in their comeback effort.
On the defensive side, Alabama held Missouri guard Grace Slaughter to 6 points in the half after she scored 17 in the first, which had accounted for over half of the Tigers’ score.
The game remained close until the beginning of the fourth quarter, when Alabama transformed its 4-point lead into an eventually unsurmountable 62-50 advantage with six minutes left. Missouri never got the gap back into the single digits, and the Crimson Tide held on to advance to 2-1 in SEC play.
Weathers’s statline, in addition to her 23 points, included seven rebounds, three assists and a whopping 40 minutes, which demonstrates her value to a team that shows its depth by playing seven or eight players with significant minutes.
“Karly Weathers’s leadership and toughness was on incredible display,” Curry said. “She’s one of the best leaders I’ve ever seen when it gets hard. Really special.”
Timmons finished with 16 and also seven rebounds, while the Crimson Tide got a quiet combined 10 points from bigs Naomi Jones and Alancia Ramsey.
Alabama next plays on Thursday night at Auburn. The game is at 8:00 p.m. CT and can be watched on SEC Network.
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