Tide Falls Short in Season Opener
11/18/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Tide Falls Short in Season Opener
Friday, November 18, 2005
Box Score
TUSCALOOSA ?? Not much went right in the first 10 minutes of Alabama's 56-52 loss to Washington on Friday night in head coach Stephany Smith's debut on the Alabama sidelines. The Tide couldn't stop Washington's talented guards from getting to the basket at will, and Smith's triangle offense was far from mid-season form.
To make things worse, one of the worst scenarios imaginable for a team or an athlete happened just eight minutes into the first game of the season.
Junior guard Navonda Moore landed awkwardly after a rebound attempt, suffering an apparent upper-body injury. Moore was down for several minutes before being carried out of the arena under the care of the Alabama medical staff. Moore's status as of the end of game-time is undetermined, as she continues to undergo evaluation.
At that point, the Tide faced a 12-point deficit and a question of which player would step up to fill the shoes of the injured Moore. That question was answered emphatically over the next 12 minutes, as fellow junior Lauren Hill answered the call and put her team on her back.
"It obviously wasn't our plan to use Lauren in the guard court tonight," Smith said. "But after Navonda went down, I knew I was going to have to put her in that situation. She did a great job for us, obviously, despite the fact that she hasn't played guard for us at all this season."
Hill, who knocked down 14-of-19 of her field goal attempts in two Alabama exhibition victories, scored all 14 of her first-half points in a four-minute span. Her offensive heroics helped the Tide erase the earlier deficit and carry a one-point lead into the half.
After the break, however, offensive heroics became a thing of the past for anybody on either team, as each squad's offenses struggled to get anything going.
Smith, a man-to-man coach throughout her illustrious eight-year career, switched to a zone, forcing Washington's guards to prove their mark from behind the three-point arc. The strategy worked, as the Tide held Washington to a dismal 19.4 percent shooting from the floor in the second half and just 27.9 percent for the game.
"The zone went pretty well," Smith said. "I am a man-to-man coach, but I was happy with the way we played that defense tonight. We just gave up to much on the offensive glass to win."
The only problem for the young Crimson Tide unit, however, was that most of those missed shots ended up in the hands of attacking Huskies. Alabama surrendered 25 offensive rebounds to Washington, resulting in 20 second-chance points for UW.
Still, the scrappy Tide team made it a game to the end. Alabama held a two-point lead with seven minutes remaining. After trading baskets, the Huskies went ahead for good at the 4:04 mark with a clutch three-point basket by Andrea Plouffe.
Alabama tied the game two minutes later, but Washington knocked down two free throws and converted a layup to pull away a 56-52 victory.
"I was happy with our effort and I am excited about the future of this program," Smith said. "We executed well, but not well enough to get the outcome we wanted."
Hill led the Tide offensive efforts, scoring a game-high 17 points. The New Orleans native fell one rebound short of a double-double in her first outing of the season, as she collected nine rebounds on the night.
Senior Dee Merriweather did accomplish the feat, however, as she scored 12 points and grabbed 14 rebounds for the third double-double in her last two seasons. Merriweather was perfect from the floor, knocking down all five of her attempts from the field.
Junior Harriet Barnes continues to impress early in her first season in an Alabama uniform. The junior college transfer, who had a double-double of her own in the Tide's final tune-up a week ago, scored nine points and had four rebounds in her Alabama debut. She also passed well out of the post in Smith's triangle offense, dishing four assists, a team-high.
Washington had three players in double figures in the scoring column, led by Cameo Hicks and Dominique Banks, who each tallied 13. Hicks added six offensive rebounds, while Plouffe nabbed four steals on the defensive end.
The Tide will finish its early two-game home stand on Monday, Nov. 21, when they play host to Santa Clara. The Broncos were on the short end of a 92-91 thriller to highly-ranked Georgia in Athens on Friday night.
Game time on Monday is slated for 7 p.m. in Coleman Coliseum.
