Alabama Senior Trio Leads the Way for Women's Basketball 67-55 Win over Auburn
Behind the scoring power of the three seniors, Alabama beat Auburn 67-55 for their third straight victory over the Tigers in Coleman Coliseum Sunday afternoon.
"Just an outstanding team effort in so many ways, really proud of everybody today," Alabama head coach Kristy Curry said. "In rivalry games a lot of things can happen, and it's just really special when you can get a win on a day like today with a great home crowd."
Alabama improved to 12-2, (5-2 SEC) with the rivalry win.
The senior trio of Jasmine Walker, Ariyah Copeland, and Jordan Lewis have been the leading scorers for Alabama all season long and combined to score 27 of Alabama's 31 first half points, and 55 of 67 overall.
Walker finished with 17 points and nine rebounds, while Copeland and Lewis both added 19 points. On top of her 19 points, Lewis almost had a triple-double.
"I'm really proud of this young lady to my right," Curry said of Lewis after the game. "Just an incredible effort, leadership, communication, and near triple double with eight rebounds, eight assists, only three turnovers against one of the best teams in the country defensively."
The Crimson Tide got off to a hot start offensively with a 11-0 run to open the game with all 11 points coming from Walker, Copeland and Lewis. However, Auburn's full-court-pressure on defense soon began to put a strain on the Alabama offense.
The only basket for the first seven minutes of the second quarter was a three-pointer from Lewis. Even though the offense slowed down in the quarter, the Crimson Tide ended the half on a 7-0 run to take a 31-22 lead into the break.
Even with the constant pressure by the Auburn defense, the offense managed to stay calm because of Lewis' experience against the Tigers.
"It's not my first go round playing Auburn, and we all know that they're known for their toughness and for their defense," Lewis said. "So we took a lot of time this week really working on the press and being controlled."
Alabama built the lead up to 14 in the second half before an Auburn run cut it to four with 7:45 left in the game.
"We just changed up our defense and got up a little bit more on the ball and tried to force the issue and force some turnover so that we can score in transition. It helped. It gave us a little boost, a little run," said Auburn head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy.
Two key three-pointers from Walker pushed the lead back up to 10 for the Crimson Tide, and Auburn never managed to pull close again.
Auburn falls to 5-9 and is still searching for their first conference win. Honesty Scott-Gray was the leading scorer for the Tigers with 17 points.
Alabama will look to continue to the momentum from this senior trio as they travel to Kentucky to take on the no. 12 Wildcats Thursday night.
"We've got great balance offensively," Curry said. "When we can get our trio going like we did today, we're really hard to defend."
