Feb. 26, 2012
Final Stats | 
Balcomb | Coleman & Foggie |
Russell’s Photos | SEC Tourn. Bracket 
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The No. 24 Vanderbilt women’s basketball team concluded its regular season with a 67-54 victory over Alabama on Sunday, February 26, at Memorial Gym. The Commodores conclude the season with a 21-8 record, 9-7 in SEC play. The Crimson Tide finish their season with a record of 12-18, 2-14 in league action.
The Commodores were led in scoring by sophomore guard Christina Foggie, who’s 18 points wrapped up the SEC scoring title with a season average of 17.9 points per game. Foggie also grabbed seven rebounds. She becomes the first Vanderbilt player to lead the SEC in scoring since Wendy Scholtens did it for the third time in 1991.
She was joined in double-figures by backcourt mate Jasmine Lister, who posted 16 points along with seven assists and a career-high seven rebounds, and center Stephanie Holzer, who scored 12 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Elan Brown matched Holzer with eight boards.
The Tide was led by 16 points from Jasmine Robinson, while Kyra Crosby contributed 12 points. Meghan Perkins grabbed a team-high six rebounds.
The Commodores never trailed and used an 11-1 run to open the game. They led by as many as 21 points (with 5:49 remaining). Vanderbilt outscored Alabama in the paint, 36-14, and out-rebounded the Tide, 40-29. As a team, Vanderbilt was 25-59 from the field, good for 42.4%, while the Tide shot just 33.3% (16-48).
Vanderbilt’s lone senior, Jordan Coleman, got her first start of the season and scored two points while grabbing four rebounds. It was, however, far from a celebratory Senior Day start, according to Head Coach Melanie Balcomb.
“We changed the starting lineup just based on who was best defensively in practice the last two days,” she said. “We kind of just started from scratch and said `Hey, we’re going to start games differently.’ I just wanted to look at it differently and start games with offense off our defense. Those are the five that did it yesterday in practice.”
Along side Coleman to start the game were Lister, Foggie, Holzer and Brown.
Coleman was pleased to go out with a win on Senior Day, especially after watching the last two Vanderbilt senior classes lose their final regular season home game.
“It was awesome,” Coleman said. “It’s not a fun feeling to go up and get flowers after a loss, so thankfully we got the win.”
Coleman couldn’t have been more proud of her sophomore teammate, Foggie, for leading the SEC in scoring.
“I really admire that over the summer she went home and busted her butt to add different aspects to her game,” Coleman said. “She can do everything, she’s not just a one-dimensional player. We’ve talked as a team about how proud of that we are.”
Foggie, however, gave a lot of the credit to her point guard. Lister finished the season with an SEC-best 5.5 assists per game.
“My teammates have really helped me to get to that point,” Foggie said. “Especially Jasmine Lister, she and the rest of my teammates have really helped me be able to get out and get a three.”
Vanderbilt’s 9-7 record earns them the seven seed in the 2012 SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament, which opens on Thursday, March 1, at Bridgestone Arena in downtown Nashville. The Commodores will face the 10 seed, Mississippi State, on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. The winner will face second-seeded Tennessee on Friday, March 2, at 2:30 p.m. The first two rounds of the Tournament can be seen on FSN.
Balcomb feels the SEC Tournament is as wide-open as it has ever been.
“This year anybody can win this conference,” Balcomb said. “We say that a lot, but I think this year you’re going to really see upsets. I think this is a year where you could see a team win four games and win the tournament. Everybody says you can’t do that, but we did that my first SEC Championship (in 2004).”
