TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — “Scooby” decided to get scrappy at the right time Thursday night for the Mississippi State women”s basketball team.

Diamber Johnson responded to the pleas from her coach to demand the basketball in a big way, scoring her team”s final 11 points in a 68-55 victory against the University of Alabama before a crowd of 2,114 at Foster Auditorium.

Johnson”s emergence down the stretch enabled MSU (11-16, 3-12 Southeastern Conference) to snap a three-game losing streak, to end a three-game winning streak by Alabama (15-13, 4-11), and to hand the Crimson Tide their first loss in their newly renovated, $16.56 million home on Senior Night.

“This is what we have been talking about to her,” MSU coach Sharon Fanning-Otis said. “You have to have a player with experience be able to step up and the rest of the team is going to gain confidence when they know you want the ball. She wanted the basketball, and she wanted to go to the free throw line.”

Johnson was 7 of 13 from the field with four rebounds, two assists, and two blocked shots in 38 minutes. Her 22-point effort was two shy of matching her career high. She might have eclipsed that total if she didn”t miss the front end of two one-and-ones late in the first half. But those misses were two of the only things that didn”t go right for the 5-foot-7 junior guard, who scored in double figures for the a career-high fifth consecutive game.

“I am just playing my game,” said Johnson, whose nickname is “Scooby”. “I am not putting pressure on myself to (think) I always have to score 20 points or do something. Porsha (Porter) and all of them have been stepping up, so now that the pressure is off I am just being myself and zoning in on the rim a lot more.”

Johnson”s first dagger came with 2 minutes, 8 seconds remaining when she came off a screen on the left wing and drained a 3-pointer to kick MSU”s lead to 62-54.

The teams exchanged turnovers before Johnson reached deeper into her bag of tricks for a shot that would have made Phoenix Suns guard Steve Nash smile.

Seconds earlier, Alabama”s Kaneisha Horn had knocked Johnson down near midcourt going for the ball. Johnson fell and looked up with arms extended as if to say, ”What gives? Why wasn”t a foul called?”

With only five seconds remaining on the shot clock, Johnson had little time to re-gain her composure. But she showed plenty of poise by taking the inbounds pass and driving under the basket and flipping a one-handed scoop shot that rolled into the basket.

Johnson didn”t expect Shafontaye Myers to be standing right there, and she nearly tripped after she flipped the ball home. The basket showed she getting more comfortable taking the ball to the basket and heeding Fanning-Otis” wishes.

“It was a step toward that,” Johnson said. “It is more of a confidence thing. Once you get it and you see how easy it is or that you”re able to do it, I will build off that.”

MSU used a 3-pointer by Danielle Rector (10 points) off an assist from Johnson to cap a 13-0 run early in the second half to build its biggest lead, 50-29 with 13 minutes, 25 seconds remaining.

But Alabama made its run and finally got the crowd in its cozy new hope involved. The Crimson Tide pushed tempo with their defense and raised their energy to creep within 59-54 on an offensive rebound putback by Horn (eight points, seven rebounds) with 2:50 to play. Tierney Jenkins (17 points, 17 rebounds) had nine points in a 19-5 run that helped Alabama get within hailing distance.

“We started off pretty bad,” Jenkins said. “We felt like we beat them before at their house (66-61 on Feb. 3) and we were coming off a three-game winning streak, so I think we kind of took them lightly.

“In the second half, it was definitely what we wanted to do.”

But unlike previous games when it went cold from the field or it failed to execute, MSU responded to Alabama”s challenge and the hostile environment. The performance was that much more impressive considering the Lady Bulldogs did it with center Catina Bett (eight points in 22 minutes), Porter (five points, career-high eight assists in 31 minutes), and forward Ashley Brown (zero points, six rebounds in 26 minutes) in foul trouble.

“This is the next step,” Fanning-Otis said. “To be able to play through adversity, to get a great lead, to play through serious foul trouble, and to be able to withstand those runs. For everyone to be able to give us our biggest lead when we had all of those biggest rotations, it is a tremendous win for us.”

Ericka Russell (17 points) was the only other player in double figures for Alabama, which held a 41-32 rebounding edge, including a 19-2 advantage on the offensive glass.

MSU overcame that deficit thanks to a season-high 54.5 percent shooting effort from the field. The Lady Bulldogs were 9 of 19 from 3-point range, led by Mark Kathryn Govero (21 points), who was 5 of 8 from beyond the arc. Her 21 points helped her pass Nitra Perry and move into 13th place on the school”s all-time scoring list with 1,132 points.

Govero, who twisted her left ankle at the end of practice Wednesday, said her ankle still felt sore against Alabama. She said Johnson was one of the keys to helping the Lady Bulldogs show the toughness they needed to notch their third SEC road win of the season.

“She demanded the ball and kind of took over there for a little bit,” Govero said. “She ran our offense and hit some big shots for us. She was real aggressive. She was a leader out there for us.”

MSU also had 14 assists (23 turnovers) its most since it had 15 in a win at Auburn on Feb. 6.

MSU will play host to the University of Mississippi at 2 p.m. Sunday at Humphrey Coliseum. Govero, the team”s lone senior, will be honored.

Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.