In the first round of the SEC Tournament on Wednesday, No. 11 seed Alabama took down No. 14 seed Missouri 65-48.
The win was anchored by solid defense and a collective scoring effort, as 48 points is the lowest the team has allowed since early in SEC play. Four different players logged double figures in points.
It was above all a major late-game win for the Crimson Tide, which which went into halftime up 8 but only having scored 31 points. Forward Essence Cody had 10 points and guards Diana Collins and Ta’Mia Scott had 8, but the rest of the team was silent offensively, including the team’s leading scorer in guard Jessica Timmons.
“It wasn’t really our best shooting night,” head coach Kristy Curry said. “Really proud of our team for finding a way to win tonight.”
The third quarter didn’t give Alabama fans any more reason for optimism, as Missouri won the period 17-10 while holding the Crimson Tide to 25% shooting from the field and a far-from-optimal 10% from 3 on 10 attempts. The third was unequivocally the best quarter of the game for the Tigers, who didn’t score more than 11 in any other. Even with the offensive success, they only shot 30.8% from the field and made two 3s.
Up by a slim 41-37 margin going into the fourth, Curry’s squad needed a spark of sorts to put the game away. One could rightfully have expected the frequent second-half star Timmons to step up, but she only finished with 7 points.
Rather, it was freshman guard Ace Austin who, not having scored in the first three quarters, pulled through for her team. She notched 14 points in the fourth quarter, going 5/6 from the field and 4/5 from deep. Her massive scoring uptick gave the Crimson Tide a verve on offense that it hadn’t possessed all game, and it rode a wave of baskets and stops to a 24-11 quarter victory.
“Credit Ace for coming off the bench,” Curry said, crediting the entire Crimson Tide bench for its contributions. “We had enough stops down the stretch that impacted winning.”
Austin finished as the team’s leading scorer with that final frame, and she was followed by Collins with 13, Scott with 12 and Cody with 11. Guard Karly Weathers, who isn’t always a consistent scorer but is a reliable rebounder, compensated for her mere 4 points with a colossal 16-rebound performance.
“Karly just found ways to impact winning,” Curry said, adding about the scoring distribution: “To have four in double-figures, it took a team effort with a lot of little things that made a big difference.”
Alabama will seek to advance in the SEC Tournament as it takes on No. 6 seed Tennessee on Thursday. The game is at 7:30 p.m. CT on SEC Network.
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