Just when one important player returns for the Georgia women’s basketball team, another one exits.

Starting point guard Jasmine James — who had missed the Lady Dogs’ last five games with a right ankle sprain — came off the bench at the 17:39 mark of the first half of Sunday’s game against Alabama.

The problem for Georgia was that James came in for another injured starter — Meredith Mitchell, who left after being involved in a collision and did not return.

Though the Lady Dogs (18-6, 7-4) beat the Crimson Tide 81-66, Georgia head coach Andy Landers was aware the positives the team could take from another victory was offset by Mitchell’s injury.

ANDY LANDERS

“Obviously tonight was bittersweet and it’s a little bit frustrating to me as a coach because tonight was a night when we were going to have everybody healthy and get this season moving in the direction that we wanted to move it in,” Landers told Georgia Sports Communications. “Then, two minutes into the game, Meredith is out and a very important player to us isn’t healthy anymore.

That’s disappointing. Of course it was an accident and it’s not anybody’s fault. As a result of Meredith being out, we were playing people at different positions and ‘J.J.’ [James] was trying to knock some of the cobwebs off.”

And it didn’t take long for James to get back in a groove, as she scored 18 points, tied with teammate Krista Donald for game-high honors.

Donald also led the Lady Dogs in rebounds with nine.

James and Donald were just two of Georgia’s five double-digit scorers, however, as Khaalidah Miller,  Anne Marie Armstrong and Jasmine Hassell scored 14 points, 13 points and 10 points, respectively.

The Lady Dogs grabbed a 2-0 lead less than 30 seconds in and stayed in control for the duration of the game, aside from a brief 38-second stretch when the Crimson Tide went up 25-24 in the first half.

Georgia outscored Alabama 10-6 after that to take 36-31 lead into the locker room.

From there, the Lady Dogs put up 45 more points in the second half to the Crimson Tide’s 35 to seal the victory.

Georgia takes the floor again next Sunday, hosting Vanderbilt at 2 p.m. in Stegeman Coliseum.