On Senior Night, Alabama’s seniors slay Gators

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Alabama women’s basketball team led for a majority of the contest and held on to defeat the Florida Gators, 76-73, Thursday night inside Coleman Coliseum. The Crimson Tide senior class, who was honored following the contest, combined to score 60 points in the team’s final home game of the 2023-24 campaign.

Alabama (22-8, 9-6 SEC) led for nearly 36 minutes of the game, building its lead to as many as 12 points (42-30). However, Florida used a fourth quarter rally to take a lead late before the Tide scored six of the game’s final eight points to secure the victory.

Alabama seniors led the way in the win, as Sarah Ashlee Barker topped the Tide with 18 points and eight rebounds. Aaliyah Nye added an additional 17 points with Loyal McQueen (13) and JeAnna Cunningham (12) also scoring double figures in the home contest.

Florida (14-13, 5-10 SEC) was led by Leilanio Correa scoring 22 points and collecting four rebounds.

Head Coach Kristy Curry Postgame Comments

“Just a great effort down the stretch to find enough winning plays. We did a lot of little things that we normally do well, not so well at times, but at the end of the day, we made enough winning plays. Credit to these kids and the toughness, grit and resiliency they had, on a night (senior night) that I think is often hard to play. Florida is really good and they’ve had a lot of close losses – they’re so dynamic, gifted, versatile and deep offensively. I thought our zone and mixing up our defenses were effective, so credit to these kids. We made one big stop and one more big play than they did.”

Sarah Ashlee Barker got the Tide out to a quick start scoring 10 of the team’s 25 points in the first quarter, converting on a pair of threes.The Crimson Tide ended the first quarter with a six-point lead (25-19).

UA continued to maintain its lead throughout the second quarter, primarily on the defensive end of the floor Alabama held Florida to just four made field goals in the quarter including only one make in the final 4:30, and held a 12-point lead at 42-30 heading into the locker rooms for halftime.

Florida trimmed the deficit to two points early in the third quarter before Alabaam responded with an 11-2 run to go back up by 11, 56-45.

The Crimson Tide would lead by nine after three quarters, 61-52, but a 12-2 run helped give the Gators a 71-70 lead with 1:54 left to play. It was UF’s firstlead since the first quarter of play — and the Tide responded by scoring six of the game’s final eight points to result the three-point home win.

Notes

• Following the contest, the team honored its five seniors which included Sarah Ashlee Barker, Jeanna Cunningham, Loyal McQueen, Aaliyah Nye and Del’Janae “Burger” Williams.
• Alabama moved to 6-0 when at least four players score double-digits.
• UA improved to 20-0 when leading with five minutes of regulation left.
• The Tide’s 11 blocks is a season high a s Cunningham swatted four shots with Barker and Nye adding three blocks apiece.
• UA led for all but 4:22 of the contest Alabama shot 43 percent (26-60) from the field, 35 percent (7-20) from range and 81 percent (17-21) from the charity stripe In comparison, Florida shot 45 percent (27-60) from the floor, 60 percent (9-15) from deep and 59 percent (10-17) from the line.

Up Next

Alabama will travel to College Station, Texas, in its final game of the regular season to face Texas A&M Sunday afternoon inside Reed Arena The Crimson Tide and the Aggies will square off at 2 p.m. CT with the contest airing on SEC Network+