Women's Basketball Survives at Tennessee Tech, 62-59
12/12/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - The University of Alabama women's basketball team overcame a cool shooting night and a near buzzer-beating three-point attempt to escape with a hard-fought 62-59 victory over Tennessee Tech on Saturday night.
The win improved the Crimson Tide to 6-1 on the year while dropping Tech to 5-3. Alabama improved to 23-2 all-time against teams from the Ohio Valley Conference.
Sophomore point guard Kate Mastin sparked the Tide's closing flurry over the final two minutes when Bama rallied from a deficit to earn the win. Mastin assisted on a trey by Monique Bivins with 1:49 left putting UA up 56-55. On UA's next possession Mastin posted an old-fashioned three point play scoring on a driving lay-up and free throw to give the Tide a 59-55 advantage.
Following a Natasha Gamble free throw for Alabama and four points from the charity stripe by Tech, Mastin toed the line with four ticks on the clock and calmly sank two free throws to ice the game. TTU got the ball inbounds and up the court launching a 30-foot three-point try that caromed off the rim and backboard at the buzzer.
"I am very excited and glad to get a win against this team in their gym," said UA head coach Rick Moody. "I thought we showed great poise and toughness over the final minutes. We played through some challenges and situations. This is a great accomplishment for this team at this point in our season."
Both teams struggled offensively in the first half suffering scoring droughts of over four minutes each. Tech went cold first, failing to score a basket from the 15:04 to the 11:13 mark. Bama could not capitalize on the Golden Eaglettes cool spell scoring just six points during the span.
The Tide slipped into its own drought from the 12:09 to the 7:44 mark that allowed TTU to stay in the game. The two squads went back and forth over the closing four minutes of the period with Tech scoring the final point of the half with 1:26 left to earn the 27-26 edge at the break.
Gamble led a trio of Tide players in double figures finishing with 17 points including 10 in the second half. Bivins scored 16 with Mastin chipping in 11. Alabama won the battle of the boards, 33-32. The Alabama defense also held Tech to just 36.7 percent from the field including a season-low 23.5 percent performance from behind the three-point line.
Emily Christian scored 26 points for the Golden Eaglettes with 20 of her total coming in the second half. Kendall Cavin, who missed the final shot for TTU, finished with 13 points.
The Crimson Tide will have a week off from competition as the Bama team members go through the rigors of the university's exam week. Alabama's next game will be Dec. 18 against #25 Kansas State in Springfield, Mo., as part of the Triple Crown Sports Classic.
