Tide Hosts Vandy Women's Basketball

The Alabama women’s basketball team (12-7, 2-4 Southeastern Conference) returns to the court on Sunday when it hosts the Vanderbilt Commodores (13-6, 3-3 SEC) in the Crimson Tide’s annual Power of Pink game, sponsored by Tuscaloosa Toyota. The game will tip off at 1 p.m. CST in Foster Auditorium and will air live on the SEC Network.

Alabama and Vanderbilt will meet for the 40th time in program history on Sunday. The Commodores lead the series, 28-11, and have won the last 11 consecutive games against the Tide. Alabama’s last win over Vanderbilt came on Feb. 8, 2004, by a score of 81-68 in Tuscaloosa.

The Tide is coming off a 61-51 win on Thursday against in-state rival Auburn where junior Shafontaye Myers went off for a career-high 23 points, including 21 from three-point range. Myers’ seven three-pointers ties for the second-most scored in a game in Alabama history. The Tide finished with nine three-pointers in the game as a team, marking the fourth time this season Alabama has hit that mark.

Sophomore Daisha Simmons continues to pace the Tide on offense for the season with an average of 12.4 points per game. She is followed closely by Myers, who chips in 12.2 points per game. Junior Jasmine Robinson also averages double figures for Alabama, contributing 10.7 points per contest. Senior Alicia Mitcham leads the Tide in rebounds with 5.5 boards per game while Simmons records a team-best 4.3 assists and 2.6 steals.

As a team, Alabama continues to lead the Southeastern Conference in three-point field goal percentage defense, allowing opponents to connect on only 23.7 percent of their shots from long range.

Vanderbilt has lost three of its last four games, including back-to-back losses at LSU (54-51) and most recently at home to No. 9 Tennessee (83-75). In Thursday’s game against the Lady Vols, senior Tiffany Clarke recorded the game’s lone double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Junior Christina Foggie led Vanderbilt in scoring, however, collecting 22 points on the night. The Commodores committed only six turnovers in the game but could not overcome the 12-point deficit at halftime.

Vanderbilt ranks No. 2 in the SEC in free throw shooting, hitting 72.7 percent of its attempts from the charity stripe. The Commodores also rank second in three-point field goal percentage (35.3) and three-point field goal percentage defense (26.1). Two of Vanderbilt’s players rank in the top-10 in the league in points per game as Clarke comes in at No. 5 with 16.0 points per game while Foggie follows directly behind at No. 6 with at 15.6 points per game. Additionally, junior Jasmine Lister comes in at No. 2 in assists with 6.1 per contest.