Jan. 13, 2011
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Looking to right the ship on the road in the team’s final test before Saturday’s primetime matchup on ESPN at Tennessee, Vanderbilt’s women’s basketball team earned its first SEC road win of the season with an 82-66 win at Alabama on Thursday at Coleman Coliseum.
The win was Vanderbilt’s third in a row and snapped a two-game losing streak on the road in which the Commodores (12-5, 3-1 SEC) lost leads of 17 and 18 points in games at Virginia Tech and Ole Miss. It was the 10th straight win for Vanderbilt against Alabama. (11-6, 0-4 SEC).
“I think we were ready tonight,” Head Coach Melanie Balcomb said. “We had paid the price before on the road and didn’t want that to happen again, and I felt like this was the right timing for us to get our first SEC win on the road.”
Vanderbilt entered the game 1-5 on the road and was in need of a road win heading into Knoxville on Saturday. After a back-and-forth first half which featured five lead changes and four ties, the Commodores exerted their strength in the second half by opening the half on a 14-1 run to take a 53-35 lead with 13:58 to play.
The Commodores were able to capitalize on Alabama misfiring on its first 13 shots of the half. Alabama did not hit a field goal until the 12:19 mark of the half.
Vanderbilt’s run proved to be too much to overcome and the Commodores led by as many as 20 points in the second half, while shooting their second highest field-goal percentage of the season at 56.9 percent. It was the second straight game Vanderbilt has topped 50 percent shooting after shooting 52.0 percent against Auburn on Sunday.
The Commodores had four players score in double figures, led by Jence Rhoads, who had her third 20-point game of the season, finishing with 20 points and six assists. Hannah Tuomi added 19 and Stephanie Holzer had her fourth double-double of the season and second in three games with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Jasmine Lister added 10.
Vanderbilt trailed by as many as five points in the first half and were down three, 28-25, with 3:52 to play in the first half before Vanderbilt closed the half on a 14-6 run to take a 39-34 lead into the locker room.
Thursday’s game marked an end of an era for Vanderbilt playing games at Coleman Coliseum. Alabama is set to move into Foster Auditorium for its game on Feb. 13 against Florida. The refurbished building seats 3,800 and will also be home to Alabama volleyball.
Returning to the floor for Vanderbilt on Thursday was guard Christina Foggie, who missed the last two games due to post concussion syndrome. Foggie was scoreless in 10 minutes of play.
The Commodores will continue their road trip on Saturday when they play at Tennessee on ESPN’s College GameDay at 7 p.m. CT on ESPN2.
