Alabama Women’s Basketball Falls in SEC Tournament to South Carolina, 77-35

The Alabama women’s basketball team ended its run at the Southeastern Conference Tournament with a 77-35 loss to No. 17 South Carolina on Thursday at The Arena at Gwinnett Center. The Crimson Tide finishes the season with a 13-18 overall record while the Gamecocks improve to 24-6.

“Any time you don’t shoot the ball well against a good team like South Carolina, you are going to have trouble,” said Alabama head coach Wendell Hudson. “We had open looks in the beginning of the first half and second half, but we just couldn’t hit them. We played so hard last night and weren’t able to play with that same intensity. It’s tough to do that in back-to-back games.”

South Carolina was solid offensively throughout the game, hitting 50.9 percent of its attempts while Alabama finished 24.6 percent from the floor. The Gamecocks also out-rebounded the Tide, 47-31, and outscored Alabama, 40-14, in the paint.

The game started off close until a 14-2 run by South Carolina spanning four minutes put the Gamecocks in front, 21-9. Alabama cut it to nine but was unable to make any type of offensive push to close out the half as South Carolina would hold a 28-18 lead heading into the break.

The Gamecocks scored seven unanswered points over the first three minutes of the second half before sophomore Daisha Simmons knocked down the Tide’s first bucket at the 16:12 mark. South Carolina continued to distance itself as the game went on, leading by as many as 41.

Simmons would finish as Alabama’s leading scorer with 10 points while freshman Nikki Hegstetter had a team-high seven rebounds in addition to eight points, both of which were season bests. The Gamecocks were led by senior Ashley Bruner, who had 10 points and 14 rebounds, and sophomore Elem Ibiam, who finished with a game-high 19 points.