by AUSTIN, Texas – The No. 8-seeded Alabama women’s basketball team fell to No. 1 seed Texas, 65-54, Sunday night in the Second Round of the 2024 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. With the loss, the Crimson Tide finished one of its best seasons with a 24-10 overall record and 10-6 mark in Southeastern Conference play.
Although Texas led by as much as 15 points, Alabama responded multiple times to keep the score within 10 for most of the game.
The Tide’s Sarah Ashlee Barker (17), Aaliyah Nye (14) and Loyal McQueen (12) all put double figures on the board in the losing effort. Barker and Essence Cody paced the team with six rebounds, which contributed to the Tide’s 34 total boards.
Texas (32-4) was led by Madison Booker and Aaliyah Moore, who scored 21 points each.
Head Coach Kristy Curry Postgame Comments
“I just want to say congratulations to Texas, to Vic Shaefer and his staff, and to his kids. I have a lot of respect for the program and just want to congratulate them. I don’t want to get up here and talk about all the things that we didn’t do today, but I do want to mention that we’ve had 101 practices, as of yesterday, and we’ve been on a 10-month journey, with an incredible group of young women. In our program, we have three core values: grit, love and gratitude. The grittiness of this group and the love they have for the front of their chest, in a day in time where that’s unique, and the love that they have for each other and the game and just the gratitude every day. I’m incredibly proud to be their coach, I’m incredibly proud of the 24 wins. We had two returning starters from a year ago and five returners in that locker room. The leadership of this group has been amazing. I told them how incredibly proud I was of them. We’re not going to talk about what we didn’t do well enough today – we’re going to talk about all the things we did well on this 10-month journey with as special of a group as I’ve ever been with.”
