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Alabama Women's Basketball
Bama Women Beat Appalachian State 93-59
Photo Credit: RollTide.com
For the second consecutive regular season game, and third including the exhibition game, the Alabama Crimson Tide women's basketball team scored over 90 points. Yesterday evening Bama knocked off the Appalachian State Mountaineers by 34 points, 93-59 in Foster Auditorium in Tuscaloosa. One would have to go back to 2001 when the Tide scored over 90 in consecutive games. The Tide improves to 2-0 on the season, while the Mountaineers dropped to 0-2.
Scoring 20 points in last night's contest, sophomore Meoshonti Knight broke her career-best point total by four. She tied her career-best in rebounds with eight last night. Right behind Knight was senior Nikki Hegstetter pumping in 17 points, followed by sophomore Hannah Cook with 15 points and junior Breanna Hayden with 13 points.
Scoring in single digits for the Tide were Karyla Middlebrook and Shaquera Wade with eight apiece, Khadijah Carter with five points, C'Coriea Foy with three, and Quanetria Bolton and Diamante with two apiece to round out the scoring.
Head coach Kristy Curry said, "I thought we were able to come out and sustain a tough first quarter and some foul trouble and play smarter from that point on. We were able to get a lot of easy baskets. We really got a lot of shot attempts, and we were able to knock some of those open ones down and started shooting better from the line. Overall, I was really pleased. Our pace was really, really good at times."
The Tide picked up 32 points from 27 forced turnovers while holding State to 27 percent from the floor. Bama shot 43 percent with 13 assists. Defensively Bama batted back nine shots.
This Sunday, November 22nd the Crimson Tide hosts Mississippi Valley State in Foster Auditorium. The game is scheduled for a 2 p.m. CT tip off.
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Bama Football Coaches Select Players Of The Week
The University of Alabama football coaching staff selected 10 Players of the Week from the Tide's 31-6 win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs this past Saturday.
On offense it's running back Derrick Henry, left tackle Cam Robinson and wide receiver ArDarius Stewart representing the Tide. On defense the coaches selected defensive lineman Jonathan Allen, outside linebacker Ryan Anderson and inside linebacker Reuben Foster. Representing special teams are running back Kenyan Drake, kicker Adam Griffith, cornerback/punt returner Cyrus Jones and cornerback Bradley Sylve.
Henry ran for 204 yards and had two touchdowns on 22 carries. This was his third consecutive 200-plus-yard running game against a ranked opponent. He also extended his streak of consecutive rushing touchdowns to 15. Robinson didn't allow a single sack and graded out at 90 percent in his performance on Saturday. Stewart had four catches for 32 yards and did a great job blocking when not receiving.
Defensively Allen had seven tackles, three sacks, a quarterback hurry and a forced fumble. He was the first Alabama player with three sacks in a single game since 2010 when it was done by Courtney Upshaw. Anderson had five tackles, two pass breakups and two quarterback hurries on the day. Foster had a team-high 10 tackles on the day, two pass breakups and two quarterback hurries.
On special teams Kenyan Drake was doing a great job until he suffered a broken arm on a tackle in the first half. Griffith put up a 42-yard field goal in the contest and all the extra points. Jones returned a punt 69 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter for the game's first points. Sylve had a special teams tackle and did a good job against State.
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Danny Sheridan Picks Bama Over Auburn By 14
Oddsmaker Danny Sheridan has installed the Alabama Crimson Tide as an early 14-point favorite to beat the Auburn Tigers in the 2015 Edition of the Iron Bowl. Sheridan made the announcement on the Paul Finebaum Show on the SEC Network on Monday.
Sheridan also shared that he only had the Tide as two-point favorite in the pre-season to beat the Tigers, but in light of the team's performances this season he has increased that line to 14.
Neither team faces strong competition this week in preparation for their November 28th annual Iron Bowl batter. Auburn (5-5, 2-5 SEC) hosts Idaho this Saturday while the Alabama Crimson Tide (9-1, 6-1 SEC) hosts Charleston Southern.
Alabama won last year's contest at Bryant-Denny Stadium 55-44.
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Alabama Hosts Charleston Southern For Senior Day
The University of Alabama football team took a day off from practice yesterday. Bama will be back on the practice field this afternoon. The Tide was given a breather following their 31-6 win this past Saturday over Mississippi State in Starkville.
The Crimson Tide faces Charleston Southern in the final home game of the season in Bryant-Denny Stadium for the 2015 season. This game is also Alabama's annual Senior Day, a day to honor all seniors on the Tide roster.
The game will be broadcast live by The SEC Network at 3 p.m. CT. Dave Neal, Matt Stinchcomb and Kayce Smith will be handling the announcing duties.
This will be the first meeting between the two teams.
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Nick Saban Press Conference
Alabama head coach Nick Saban spoke to the press yesterday. He said, "After watching film of the last game, we got off to a little bit of a slow
start and just didn't seem to have the energy, especially offensively,
to pay attention to detail and get the kind of execution we needed
against a very good defensive team that really did everything they could
to shut off the inside run. We made some adjustments at halftime and
played a lot better in the second half, getting some big explosive plays
that made a difference in the game. Defensively, we did a good job of
affecting the quarterback and played well in the red zone, which was
probably the difference in the game. Probably didn't tackle as well in
space as we would like to and gave up a few big plays that we probably
shouldn't have - those are things that we definitely need to work on and
try to fix. Special teams, other than getting a little bit of pressure
off the wing and being a little slow on the field goal that got
partially blocked, we really did a nice job in the game and it was an
asset for us to be able to score on special teams. We really controlled
the field position pretty well and it was helpful to us."
He recognized some of the players awarded honors. Saban said, "It's great to have SEC players of the week, Derrick Henry on offense and Jonathan Allen on defense. I really think Jonathan Allen got it for what he did to me; he probably got a lot of votes for that. Our players of the week were Derrick Henry, Cam Robinson, and ArDarius Stewart on offense; Jonathan Allen, Reuben Foster, and Ryan Anderson on defense; and Cyrus Jones, Adam Griffith, Kenyan Drake and Bradley Sylve on special teams.
Saban brought some recognition to this being the final home game for the Tide seniors. He said "It's Senior Day, the last game for a lot of our seniors who have had a great career here and contributed and had a lot of success. I certainly hope that our fans show the kind of appreciation that we all should have for what these guys' hard work, blood, sweat, and tears have contributed to the program over the last four or five years. A lot of good people; a lot of guys that are going to be successful in life and great ambassadors for The University of Alabama and this program. We're just very thankful for them and what they have contributed. The game this week against Charleston Southern - they're 9-1 and probably one of the best teams in the FCS division. They're ranked in the top-10 in almost every current category and have one of the best defenses in that league. They are also very productive offensively with a different style of offense than what we have played against. They run a lot of option, split-back kind of options that we have not played against, and their quarterback Austin Brown does a really good job. He's a very athletic guy that can run as well as being a good passer, so this is going to be a challenging game for us from a preparation standpoint. Their defense has created a lot of negative plays - they're very quick, play a 3-4 (formation), and do a great job with their pressure package to create those negative plays. This is a good team that we're playing, and hopefully our players will have the kind of respect they need to go out and play good, positive, winning football against them."
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Alabama Softball Signs Claire Jenkins
Claire Jenkins
Photo Credit: RollTide.com
Alabama softball got another signed. Claire Jenkins out of Cullman, Alabama was the Tide's fourth and final National Letter of Intent for the early spring signing period.
Head coach Patrick Murphy was very complimentary of Jenkins, saying, "Claire is very talented both offensively and defensively. She will be a great addition to the Alabama softball family."
Jenkins is currently a senior at Cullman High School, as was named to the 6A All-Tournament team and later was named the 2015 Area Player of the Year. She is also a two-time All-State as well as All-Area honoree. She was named the 2014 All-Area Hitter of the Year, and named to AL.com's 2015 Softball Super All-State Team. She is also listed on FloSoftball's 'Hot 100' list for the 2016 class.
Claire is the daughter of Rodney and Martha Jenkins, and has one sister, Jennifer.
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Bama Men's Basketball Takes On Dayton
The University of Alabama Crimson Tide basketball team will play its second game of the season, and it's first road game, when it travels to Dayton, Ohio in the College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon. Alabama faces the Dayton Flyers today at noon CT on ESPN.
This is the eighth year for the tournament, which actually began yesterday. The tourney features 15 men's games and a top-25 women's contest.
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O.J. Howard Semifinalist For John Mackey Award
Tight End O.J. Howard
Photo Credit: RollTide.com
Alabama football's junior tight end O.J. Howard has been named to the list of eight semifinalists for the John Mackey Award, presented annually to the nation's best tight end. The announcement came yesterday by the Friends of John Mackey.
Through the ten games played this season, Howard has 29 catches for 323 yards. 15 of those catches have been for first downs, and five good for 20 or more yards.
