Women’s Basketball Upends Alabama, 52-43, in Junkanoo Jam Opener

Box score.

FREEPORT, Bahamas – For the first time in 21 years the Eastern Michigan University women’s basketball team upset a school from the Southeastern Conference, defeating the University of Alabama, 52-43, in the opening game of the Fifth Annual Junkanoo Jam here Friday afternoon at St. George’s High School. The victory marks EMU’s second ever win over a team from the SEC; the other victory came Dec. 28, 1986 versus the University of Florida, 65-62, in the Sun and Fun Classic in Miami, Fla.

The Eagles will turn their attention to North Carolina State, who defeated Washington State 77-51, in the championship game of the Lucaya Bracket. Game time is set for Saturday, Nov. 24, at 3:30 p.m.

With the victory, Eastern Michigan ups its record to 4-0 on the season, while Alabama drops to 0-4.

Sophomore Alyssa Pittman led all scorers with 19 points on 5-of-11 shooting and sophomore Kelly Watts finished with 13 points and eight rebounds. Junior Canea Williams poured in seven points to go along with junior Amber Land’s eight caroms and four points.

Tierney Jenkins paced the Crimson Tide with 16 points and six rebounds in a losing effort.

Alabama jumped out to and early 7-4 advantage and was able to control the glass out-rebounding EMU 6-to-1. The Green and White struggled, going without a field goal for nearly four minutes until Williams connected on a layup to end the drought and make it 7-6 with 14:43 remaining.

However, turnovers were starting to mount for the Crimson Tide, who racked up 12 miscues in the first six minutes of work. Eastern was able to take advantage, building a 12-7 lead as UA was unable of score for more than six minutes.

The half continued to be one of runs, as Eastern Michigan would hold Alabama without a field goal for the final 6:12 while going on a 14-7 run to close the period to make it 27-18 at the break. Pittman led all scorers with 11 points while Jenkins poured in six for Alabama.

In the second 20 minutes of work the teams exchanged scores as the EMU lead hovered in double figures for the first 12 minutes of the period. Then at the 7:59 mark, Alabama started to make a run, cutting the margin to just five, 42-37, on a pair of Jenkins tosses from the charity stripe.

Eastern would post five consecutive points to get the advantage back to 10, but then UA sliced it right back to five, 47-42, with 4:30 left. That, however, would be the closest the Tide would get on this afternoon, going without another field goal and posting just a single free-throw by Jenkins with :19 seconds left in the ball game. Over the same span the Green and White were 5-of-6 from the free throw line as the squad held on for the hard-fought 52-43 victory.

For the contest Alabama committed 28 turnovers compared to 22 for Eastern Michigan. UA also out-rebounded EMU by 13 (45-to-32), but it was the Eagles holding the edge in shooting percentage (38.6 to 30.0). For the season, EMU had held all four opponents to less than 55 points and a shooting percentage of less than 35.0 percent.

Other Tournament Notes:

Junior Canea Williams won the tournament’s three-point shooting contest Thursday evening. The Mansfield, Ohio native connected on 15 treys to capture the coveted title. Sophomore Alyssa Pittman finished second with 12 long-distance bombs. Players from the University of Southern California and Virginia Tech also took part in the event.
The Eagles are 23-13 during in-season tournament games since the 1998-99 campaign. Eastern has captured the tournament crown in 9-of-16 tournaments that it has participated in over that period of time.
Sophomore Alyssa Pittman now has 91 points on the season, including 19 three-pointers.

EMU now faced North Carolina State in the Lucaya Bracket Championship. The Green and White are 0-1 versus the Wolfpak with the lone decision occurring Dec. 20, 2003, in opening game of the San Juan Shootout. That day the Wolfpack posted a 64-55 victory.

Eastern Michigan Athletics

Women’s Basketball Upends Alabama, 52-43, in Junkanoo Jam Opener

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