Fourth-Quarter Wake-Up Call Lifts Alabama Women's Basketball Over Rival Auburn
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — It’s likely the Alabama women’s basketball team has a reservation for the NCAA Tournament.
NCAA.com’s Autumn Johnson has Alabama as a No. 10 seed while ESPN’s Charlie Creme has the Crimson Tide as a No. 9 seed.
There’s still some regular-season and SEC Tournament games for Alabama to get ready for March Madness.
So the last thing the Crimson Tide needed Sunday was to come out flat against in-state rival Auburn and drop a big game at home.
That’s what it did—at least until the final five minutes of the fourth quarter.
Led by two clutch 3-pointers from Aaliyah Nye, and a furious burst of defense nowhere to be found in the first three quarters, Alabama rallied past in-state rival Auburn for a 67-61 win.
“I feel like we’re in,” Alabama coach Kristy Curry said of the NCAA Tournament. “But you have to win and take care of your business. We have work to do because we aren’t satisfied with where we are. We are fighting for an SEC Tournament double bye and that can legitimately happen.”
It’s the first time this season Alabama has won a game after trailing with five minutes to play, and the Crimson Tide improved to 13-3 at Coleman Coliseum, where it hasn’t lost in a month.
Alabama outscored the Tigers 25-9 in the final quarter and forced eight turnovers. The Crimson Tide had no fourth-quarter turnovers.
“I called timeout with about eight minutes left and I think we did a better job of getting the point across of the sense of urgency on defense and creating offense from getting stops,” Curry said.
Sarah Ashlee Barker led Alabama with 26 points, including a nine-point effort in the third quarter. She entered Sunday’s game needing seven to go over the 1,000-point mark for her career.
“I lost my grandmother three years ago, and today’s actually her birthday,” an emotional Barker said. “I got SEC Player of the Week the day she died, Feb. 6. Those two days—Feb. 6 and Feb. 18—that’s not a coincidence. It’s about trusting that God’s always got me. I know she’s proud of me and she had the best seat in the house.”
Nye hit four 3-pointers and scored 17 points, and Jessica Timmons had 13 points.
Auburn outscored Alabama 19-8 in the second quarter and held off an Alabama rally in the third quarter with an 11-1 run to lead 52-42 to start the fourth. Six of Alabama’s 15 total turnovers in the quarter didn’t help.
Barker scored with 3:40 left to play to give Alabama its first lead since the second quarter. Nye then connected on a 3-pointer and hit another 40 seconds later during a 10-2 run and Alabama led 65-58.
Alabama (19-8, 7-5 SEC) has four games left in the regular season, including a road game with No. 1 South Carolina on Thursday. The Crimson Tide has a couple more big home matchups with Mississippi State and Florida and a road game with Texas A&M before the SEC Tournament.
