Looking to gets its first SEC win over a team not named Auburn, the Alabama women’s basketball traveled to the Music City to play Vanderbilt in Memorial Gymnasium on Sunday. On paper, the Crimson Tide and the Commodores appeared to be evenly matched, and they sure played like it, taking the game to overtime.
Alabama outlasted Vanderbilt 77-71 in a game that featured 24 lead changes and 12 ties.
Brittany Davis scored 25 points, JaMya Mingo-Young had 20 points and Megan Abrams put up 14. The Crimson Tide shot a whopping 55.1 percent from the field.
Alabama moves up to 12-10 on the season and 3-7 in the SEC, and the Commodores fell to 12-12 and 3-7 in the SEC.
“Really just happy for our team, Vanderbilt’s a team that has beaten Kentucky and had some really good wins this season,” Alabama head coach Kristy Curry said. “We knew going into overtime that your will had to be stronger than your skill down the stretch, just really proud of our team.”
The game began with solid defense, and the Commodores grabbed a 13-12 lead through the first quarter. The defenses broke down more in the second quarter, though, as Davis began to get into her scoring groove.
She finished the first half with 14 points, sinking two shots from three point land. Her effort helped push Alabama to tie the game going into halftime, 31-31.
Both teams focused on getting the ball inside, as the Crimson Tide scored 20 points in the paint in the first half and the Commodores had 18.
Alabama has relied on Davis as its primary scorer throughout much of the season, and she has thrived in that role in the past two games following just a three point performance against Missouri. She totaled 20 points at No. 1 South Carolina on Thursday, and she kept that momentum as the 25 against Vanderbilt tied her career best. She also added nine rebounds to her stat sheet.
“Boy, she hit some big buckets, and then she missed one or two that I thought were going down,” Curry said after Davis. “They were making it so hard for her all night, and for her to do what she did from an offensive standpoint… she showed a lot of poise down the stretch, she never looked rattled.”
Alabama struggled to take control of the game because of its lackluster free throw shooting, making just 53 percent (8-of-15) from the charity stripe through three quarters. The Crimson Tide recovered from the line, shooting 8-of-10 in the fourth quarter and overtime.
As could be expected, the game came down to the final minutes with the score knotted at 48 after three quarters. Despite having a 6-0 run early on in the quarter, Alabama fell slightly behind the Commodores.
With 2:08 on the clock, Crimson Tide guard Hannah Barber launched a three and sank it to tie the game at 62.
After trading two-point possessions, Alabama secured a rebound with the game at 64 apiece. Curry took a timeout with 0:37 on the clock, hoping to get a good shot off. The possession ended in a missed Barber three, and Vanderbilt took a timeout for the last possession. The Commodores could not find a way to score either, and the game headed to overtime.
Led by the scoring of its guards, Alabama outscored Vanderbilt 13-7 in overtime for the win.
“Any time you win in this league on the road, it definitely can give you confidence,” Curry said. “We’ve fought through adversity, sickness, illness, COVID, you name it, we’ve had it. We’ve lost some close ones… I thought today our kids really stepped up and did it for themselves, and that can only give you confidence.”
Full Game Stats
Alabama Women’s Basketball at Vanderbilt
Alabama Athletics
Next on the schedule: Alabama will play Kentucky in Coleman Coliseum at 1 p.m. CT on Super Bowl Sunday.