By Nadia Isaac
Special to Tidesports
Back to the drawing board for Alabama.
The Crimson Tide women’s basketball team’s renewed enthusiasm after beating Vanderbilt on Sunday did not last very long, taking another devastating loss, a 66-48 decision, against No. 25 Arkansas on Thursday at Coleman Coliseum.
If that wasn’t bad enough, leading scorer Jordan Lewis is questionable for Sunday’s game against Ole Miss. She sat out the second half Thursday with a hand injury. Alabama coach Kristy Curry said Lewis is day-to-day and will be a game-time decision Sunday.
Both teams started slow, shooting under 30 percent from the field. However the Razorbacks picked up the pace at the end of the first quarter, going on a 12-0 run.
The slow start was cause for concern for Curry.
“Really disappointed in our ability to take care of the ball and it was across the board. To me we seemed a little bit out of sync,” Curry said.
As the second quarter began, Arkansas kept up the pace with another run, this time outscoring Alabama 15-0. In the first half, Alabama had 11 turnovers which led to 17 points for the Razorbacks. The Tide struggled on offense shooting 13 percent from the field while Arkansas shot 38 percent.
Alabama scored just four points in the second quarter and scored just 11 in the first half and trailed by 22 points.
“We were just cold the first half. We had 31 to their 29 shots. I don’t think it was anything Arkansas did,” Curry said. “I saw a team last week that in three games really was able to capitalize and be aggressive and make some shots. We just weren’t able to make some shots. I thought that affected the defensive end.”
Alabama gained some momentum after the half and managed to shoot 50 percent from the field in the third quarter, but couldn’t catch up with the high-scoring Razorbacks. The fourth quarter wasn’t much different as the Crimson Tide couldn’t stop the Razorback’s offense and failed to generate some of its own.
“We’ve seen this defense all year,” Curry said. “Not to take away from Arkansas, but I am just disappointed in our focus across the board. I thought they really made it hard on Jasmine (Walker) but I, again, am just disappointed because that is not who we’ve been as of late.”
Arkansas was led by guard Amber Ramirez who scored 22 points and Alexis Tolefree who scored 17 points.
Guard De’sha Benjamin was the only player in double figures for Alabama with 10.
