Alabama women’s basketball was eliminated from the SEC Tournament on Thursday, losing to Florida 63-61 in the second round.
“I think on a night like tonight, instead of coming in and talking about all the things that we didn’t do, you just have to credit your opponent,” head coach Kristy Curry said. “Florida played great, played with a lot of energy, was more aggressive.”
The Crimson Tide beat the Gators twice in the regular season and needed to do it again in order to advance to the quarterfinals.
Alabama did not take good care of the basketball to start the game, turning it over six times in the first quarter, and the Gators scored 10 points off turnovers. The Crimson compensated by collecting three steals and blocking four shots on defense.
Offensively, Alabama missed its first five 3-point shots, but Florida was having a poor shooting performance as well, shooting 1/5 from behind the arc.
With under a minute to go in the first quarter, guard Karly Weathers drained Alabama’s first triple of the night. Next possession, guard Aaliyah Nye, who is third in the nation in 3-point percentage, nailed a 3 to give her team a 14-13 lead heading into the second quarter.
Alabama’s offense struggled tremendously to begin the second frame. The Crimson Tide went over seven minutes without a made field goal.
“I just credit their defensive game plan,” Curry said. “I thought they did a really good job of being physical without the foul.”
The majority of Alabama’s 3-point shots were not falling in the second quarter, as the team shot 1/10. Despite the poor shooting performance, the Crimson Tide was only outscored by 5 points in the second and trailed by 4 points heading into halftime.
To start the second half, Alabama came out with a different approach on offense, putting more focus on shots in the paint off hard drives to the rim.
Nye scored a midrange jumper to claim the first points of the third quarter, and a minute later, guard Sarah Ashlee Barker made a layup through tight defense. When Alabama started to have success in the paint, the Florida defense slacked off on defending the perimeter. This opened the door for Nye to knock down two triples.
Nye and Barker scored 15 of Alabama’s 17 points in the third quarter. Although the backcourt duo was performing well, the rest of Alabama’s starters were struggling, including guard Zaay Green. She was off her game in the third, as she shot 0/4 and committed three personal fouls.
Defensively, Alabama did not have an answer for Florida guard Liv McGill. She scored 8 points in the third quarter to push her point total to 18.
“She just continued to catch it at ease in perfect spacing,” Curry said.
The Crimson Tide was losing 47-43 heading into the final quarter and was in need of a comeback to keep its dream alive of hosting the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament.
After the Crimson Tide and the Gators traded layups to begin the fourth quarter, Florida’s McGill scored back-to-back layups to up the Alabama point deficit to 7.
Barker responded by drilling a deep 3-pointer and finishing strong at the rim on Alabama’s next two offensive possessions. Alabama trailed by 2 points with three minutes to go in the game.
Florida leaned on McGill even harder in the closing minutes, and she answered the call by scoring 6 unanswered points to put her team ahead by 8 and push her point total to 29. But Alabama was not out of it yet.
Barker nailed her third 3-point shot of the night, and Green followed it up by hitting another triple to cut the Florida lead down to 3.
After an intentional foul from Alabama, Florida missed both free throws, and Barker capitalized by scoring a quick layup through traffic. The Crimson Tide fouled again on the next possession, and the Gators split the pair of free throws.
It was a 2-point game with 15 seconds left. Alabama had the final shot but failed to convert.
Barker finished the game as Alabama’s leading scorer with 24 points, and the second-highest was Nye with 13. The Crimson Tide turned the ball over 19 times, shot 8/28 from 3-point range and had 0 bench points.
“In every category they out-did us,” Barker said. “That’s where we have to go back to watching film and hoping we can clean up some of those things and move on and go to the NCAA tournament.”
The 68-team NCAA Tournament bracket will be announced on Sunday.
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