NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The No. 24/23 Alabama women’s basketball team dropped its final regular season road contest to No. 5/5 Vanderbilt, 85-60, Thursday night at Memorial Gymnasium. The Crimson Tide fell to 21-8 overall with a 7-8 Southeastern Conference record. 

Jessica Timmons (16) and Ta’Mia Scott (15) paced Alabama offensively with a combined 31 points. Timmons and Karly Weathers grabbed a team-high seven rebounds apiece as Scott added a team high three steals. 

Mikayla Blakes led Vanderbilt (26-3, 12-3 SEC) with 35 points while Sacha Washington grabbed 10 rebounds for the Commodores. 

“Maturity wise, defensively, we allowed our offense to affect our defense, but I don’t want that to take away from Vanderbilt. I think, secondly, we let them cut loose in transition and when you’re making shots you have the ability to set your defense and we didn’t do a very good job of finishing some offensive plays. 

“Execution wise, in the first five minutes of the third, they got some easy baskets in transition, so I don’t know that it was much different. I thought we allowed some misplacements offensively to affect our ability to defend. The interesting piece of that was that I thought some of the older kids that didn’t stick with what we’d been doing that got us there. We must learn and grow from it and they’re a top five team for a reason. You’ve got to pack your defense, and you have to rebound on the road. We turned it over 23 times. You can’t do those things and give yourself a chance to beat a top five team.”

Game Notes

• Jessica Timmons added 16 points against the Commodores, marking her 12th double-digit performance in the last 13 contests, while Ta’Mia Scott posted 15 points, extending her double-digit streak to five consecutive games
• Karly Weathers led the Tide shooting 3-of-6 (50 percent) from behind the arc
• Six players came off the Alabama bench, all recording at least one stat, including Joy Egbuna who recorded career highs with five points in 10 minutes of play
• Alabama shot 21-of-64 (33 percent) from the floor, 6-of-26 (23 percent) from deep and 12-of-16 (75 percent) from the free throw line
• In comparison, Vanderbilt shot 30-of-70 (43 percent) from the floor, 11-of-35 (31 percent) from behind the arc and 14-of-18 (78 percent) from the charity stripe

How it Happened

• Alabama paced Vanderbilt through the half of the first frame, trading the lead four times
• The Commodores ended the quarter with a 10-0 run, holding the Crimson Tide to 16 points to take a double-digit lead at the end of one (28-16) 
• Jessica Timmons sparked a 13-3 run for the Crimson Tide, cutting a deficit to two points midway through the second stanza, 31-29
• Alabama limited Vanderbilt to five points in the latter part of the second, staying within four points going into halftime, 36-32
• The Commodores started the second half with a 12-0 run, halted by a Joy Egbuna jumper three minutes into the quarter
• The Tide kept up with Vanderbilt for the remainder of the half, but failed to cut into the lead and ended the third trailing 67-48
• Alabama outscored the Commodores 10-5 in the opening half of the final quarter, trimming the deficit to 14
• Vanderbilt ended the game with a 13-2 run to result in the final score

Up Next

• Alabama will return home on Sunday, March 1, for its regular season finale, hosting No. 4/4 Texas
• Tipoff between the Crimson Tide and Longhorns is set for 11 a.m. CT on SEC Network