Bama Women's Basketball Defeats Bucknell in Holiday Classic
12/30/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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JERSEY CITY, N.J. - The gym at St. Peter's has become like a home away from home for the Alabama women's basketball team as for the third time in three trips to the SPC Holiday Classic the Crimson Tide has advanced to the championship game. The Tide earned this trip with an 89-64 victory over Bucknell on Sunday afternoon.
Alabama improves to 9-2 on the year after producing their highest offensive output of the season. Bucknell fell to 3-6 and will play in Monday's consolation game. With the win the Tide improves to 5-0 all-time at the Holiday Classic and will seek their third crown.
"The first game back after a break is always scary to me," said UA head coach Rick Moody. "I am very pleased with how we played today. We shot the ball extremely well and we hit the shots we have to hit to be a good team."
After Bucknell scored the game's opening basket, Alabama used a 12-2 run to take the early lead. Monique Bivins sparked the surge with three of her six first half three-pointers. The Bisons kept things close eventually closing the Tide margin to just three-points, 18-15, with 11:41 left in the half.
Alabama got things rolling again on offense stretching their lead to double-digits just four minutes later. Bivins hit another trio of treys in the spurt with Katie Sipe chipping in a pair of three-pointers. BU would string together six straight points but Bama closed the half with a 10-2 run to hold a 56-38 advantage at the half.
The Crimson Tide pushed the lead to over 20 early in the second half as the inside game picked things up with strong play by Jamilah Johns and Natasha Gamble. The UA duo scored 10 of the teams first 11 points in the frame. The Bama defense kept the Bucknell offense out of a flow for most of the remainder of the game as UA maintained a comfortable margin earning the
impressive 25-point win.
Five Alabama players reached double figures led by Bivins with a career-high 22 points. Gamble finished with 14 points followed by Johns and Beth Vice with 12 and Sipe at 11. With 9:35 left in the second period, Vice drained a three-pointer to become the Tide's newest member of the 1,000 point club.
For the game, Alabama connected on 12 three-pointers and out-rebounded the Bisons, 52-36.
Johns grabbed 13 rebounds to lead the Tide including seven offensive while Dee Merriweather hauled down 10 boards. For Johns it marked her fifth double-double of the year.
Molly Creamer, one of the nation's top scorers, led Bucknell with 28 points on 9-of-19 shooting for the game.
Alabama will now play the winner of the tournament's second game between St. Peter's and Akron in the championship game on Monday. The game is slated to tip-off at 7:30 p.m. (ET).
Alabama (9-2) 56-33-89
Bucknell (3-6) 38-26-64
