The University of Mississippi Athletics
Rebels Fall At Alabama 67-59
2/19/2009 | Women's Basketball
Bianca Thomas finished with a game-high 26 points to mark her seventh game this season in which she has scored 20 or more points.
Shawn Goff recorded her fourth double-double of the season by collecting 12 points and 10 rebounds. Goff also added three blocked shots to up her career total to 201 rejections to become only the 15th player in SEC history to amass 200 or more career blocked shots.
Ole Miss (15-12, 4-8 SEC) used a 8-4 run to open the second half to climb within two points of the Crimson Tide just over five minutes into play. Alabama quickly answered with five straight points to increase its lead to seven points at 44-37 midway through the half.
The Rebels used an 8-0 run over the next two minutes to take their first and only lead of the second half on a layup from Thomas. Ericka Russell hit a three-pointer for Alabama on the ensuing possession to give the Crimson Tide the lead right back.
Ole Miss managed to tie the game on one occasion and fight to within one point two other times, but the Crimson Tide failed to surrender the lead over the last nine minutes.
Thomas got Ole Miss within a point with 3:46 left to play on a layup, but Russell hit another three-pointer on the other end to stretch the Crimson Tide lead back to four points.
Goff and Thomas combined to score 12 of the first 17 points for Ole Miss to help the Rebels jump out to a 17-6 lead six minutes into the game. Alabama answered with an 11-4 run over the next three minutes to trim the Ole Miss lead to four points at 21-17 midway through the first half.
Ole Miss managed to build its lead back up to eight points with 5:35 left to play in the first half following a basket from Kayla Melson. From that point on, however, the Rebels went cold and failed to score a point for the remainder of the half. The Crimson Tide used a 14-0 run during that span to take a 35-29 lead into halftime.
Alabama forced the Rebels into 12 first half turnovers and capitalized with 12 points off those miscues. The Crimson Tide also scored 20 points in the paint and received 16 points from the bench in the opening half.
Ole Miss returns to action Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. when the Rebels welcome Vanderbilt to Tad Smith Coliseum.
