After snapping a two-game losing streak with a 67-57 victory over Mississippi State on Thursday night, the Georgia women’s basketball team is feeling good about itself again.

The No. 21 Lady Dogs (17-6, 6-4 SEC) attributed their ability to get back to winning ways to two factors — hitting the good shots they had been missing and winning the rebounding battle.

“Honestly I don’t know what it is. I’m just glad that we were shooting better,” senior Meredith Mitchell said. “A lot of people were in the gym working on their shots in the last week or so, so that could be contributing to a higher shooting percentage.”

For Georgia head coach Andy Landers, the ability of his players to be effective offensively made Thursday’s win especially enjoyable to watch.

ANNE MARIE ARMSTRONG

“It was good to watch them execute and to get points out of the offense,” Landers said. “The thing that was best was to watch them make plays on their own and score. I mean, that’s so important in basketball because people scout and try to take things away.”

For the majority of the game, the Lady Bulldogs continued to rely on the strong defense that has won them so many games this season.

Anne Marie Armstrong said it was actually Georgia’s ability to play well defensively that facilitated the improved offensive output.

“I thought defensively we disrupted a lot of things,” Armstrong said. “We had a lot of steals, a lot of deflections and I thought that was able to carry over into our offense. We did miss a lot of lay-ups, but we did shoot better definitely than we have been.” 

Lady Dogs not underestimating winless Crimson Tide

Having played back-to-back home games for the first time since playing three in a row at Stegeman Coliseum on Dec. 22, 28 and Jan. 1, the Lady Dogs hit the road again on Sunday as they travel to face the Alabama Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Alabama is winless in conference this season and has yet to win a game in 2012, with its last victory coming on Dec. 30 against Air Force.

But the Lady Dogs will be taking the game as seriously as any other.

“It’s a good team regardless of their record,” Mitchell said. “They have athletic players, they play hard, so we’re definitely not going to take them lightly. We’ll have the mindset as we do every game — just go out there and win and take it one game at a time.”

Landers said he has concern about the ability of Alabama to play quickly and penetrate.

In their loss to Arkansas on Thursday night, the Crimson Tide penetrated well enough to record 36 free throw attempts.

“Just because you’re winless doesn’t mean you can’t play,” Landers said. “This is a team that’s got athletic guards, that wants to run, pushes it hard.” 

Mitchell plays in front of friendly crowd in Tuscaloosa

Mitchell’s hometown of Midfield, Ala. is only 40 minutes from the Crimson Tide’s campus, making the trip a homecoming for the Bulldogs lone senior.

“I’m just excited to get a chance to see my family that’s going to be at the game,” Mitchell said. “For some of them, this might be the last time to actually see me play, so I just want to make them proud.”

Every time she has travelled back to face Alabama,  a big crowd has come to support Mitchell. Armstrong said getting her a win on her final visit would mean a lot to the whole team.

“Just to have her fan support out there and her hopefully have a great game and continue to be doing what she’s been doing really helped our team,” Armstrong said. “If we can come out with a big win out there then it’ll be great.”