TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The Samford women's basketball team got off to a slow start and was not able to catch up in dropping a 69-39 decision at Alabama Sunday afternoon at Coleman Coliseum.
 
Samford fell to 6-3 with the loss. Alabama improved to 10-2 with the victory.
 
"To start the game, I was a little disappointed, I thought our scouting report defense wasn't very good and that's where I was frustrated," Samford head coach Carley Kuhns said. "They are a really good basketball team, and they are going to score, but I thought we kind of gave them things that they wanted. We had some careless turnovers that led to easy baskets for them.
 
"I was so proud of our bounce back in the second quarter and into the third quarter," Kuhns said. "I thought we settled into a groove. Against really good teams like that, we have to make layups, we have to make free throws and we struggled in those two areas. They had us really sped up. That's a really good defensive team, they were denying us, they were icing our ball screens. I think in the second quarter we found a way to combat that, we just didn't see the ball go in the goal late in the third quarter."
 
Masyn Marchbanks led Samford in scoring with 13 points. Sadie Stetson added seven points for the Bulldogs. Emily Bowman led the team in rebounding with 10.
 
For Alabama, Loyal McQueen and Aaliyah Nye had 11 points each, while Meg Newman added 10 points and 11 rebounds.
 
In the first quarter, Alabama raced out to a 12-2 lead with 6:32 to go in the period after a three-pointer by Nye. Alabama held a 22-6 lead at the end of the first quarter.
 
With Alabama leading, 27-11, Samford went on a 7-0 run to cut the lead to nine points at 27-18 with 4:48 left in the second quarter following a four-point play by Marchbanks. After Alabama pushed the lead back out to 13 points at 31-18, a three-pointer by Carly Heidger cut the lead back to 10 points at 31-21 with 2:56 left before halftime. Alabama held a 33-22 lead heading into the locker room at halftime.
 
Samford closed to within six points at 37-31 with 5:06 left in the third quarter following a three-pointer by Stetson. The Crimson Tide answered by closing the third quarter with a 10-0 run to push their lead back to 16 points at 47-31.
 
Samford cut the lead to 13 points at 47-34 on a three-point play by Aubrey Blankenship with 9:23 left in the game. Alabama, however, went on an 8-0 run to push its lead to 21 points at 55-34 with 6:52 left after a jumper by Jessica Timmons. Samford could get no closer than 18 points the rest of the way as Alabama came away with the 69-39 win.
 
Samford will return home to play host to LaGrange College on Wednesday, Dec. 13, at 6 p.m. in the Pete Hanna Center.


 
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