Nov. 17, 2000

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The University of Alabama used a stifling full court press defense to hand Samford University a 66-42 loss in front of the largest women's basketball crowd in Samford history Friday night at Seibert Hall.

2,140 fans watched as Samford opened up a 9-2 lead in the first three minutes of the game. The Bulldogs lead 17-10 at the 11:40 mark and 26-24 with 4:16 left in the half. That is when the Bulldogs went ice cold.

Alabama closed out the first half on a 8-0 run to take a 32-26 lead into the locker room. In the second half, Alabama came out with an intense press that held Samford scoreless for the first 7:30 minutes as the Crimson Tide opened up a 44-26 lead and went on to win 66-42.

"I told them to put pressure on the ball and force tough passes," said Alabama head coach Rick Moody. "I was not happy with the defense in the first half but I thought we played with much more intensity in the second half."

Joni Crenshaw led the Tide with 16 points and 14 rebounds as Alabama out rebounded Samford 46-30. Shondra Johnson scored 15 points for Alabama and Nicole Carruth and Sparkle Smith each added 11 points.

Samford was led by freshman Giovanni Price who scored 17 points in her college debut. She was the only Bulldogs to reach double figures. Samford shot a frigid 17 percent in the second half from the floor and shot just 53 percent from the free-throw line in the game.

"We always use this as a benchmark game to see where our program has improved," said Samford head coach Janet Cone. "This year we played basket for basket with them for 18 minutes. Our game plan was good. We wanted to take away the three point shot and get their big players in foul trouble. We just didn't take care of our own business and score."

Samford will return to action on Monday night as the Bulldogs will host Nicholls State at Seibert Hall in a 7 p.m. game. The game can be heard on WVSU 91.1 in Birmingham.