In a game that came down to the wire, the Auburn women's basketball team came out on the losing end 56-55 vs. Tennessee in the regular season finale Sunday afternoon in Auburn Arena.
The Lady Vols came out on fire in the first half, as they went on an 11-2 run to begin the first quarter. Offense was no problem for them, as they also knocked down five three-pointers to give themselves a seven point lead heading into the second quarter.
Another run ensued for Tennessee, and they expanded their lead to double-digits over the Tigers. In fact, Auburn went almost five minutes without scoring a field goal in the second quarter, as their offense looked stagnant at times.
One nagging issue for the Lady Vols in the quarter were turnovers, and they piled up 13 of them in the first half.
Auburn would find some resemblance of offense, allowing them to cut the Tennessee lead down to five heading into halftime.
In the third quarter, both teams went back and forth trading baskets, and despite having porous numbers in the field goal percentage category, the Tigers were still hanging around.
Tennessee went on a 6-0 run towards the end of the third quarter to give themselves a 10 point lead.
Things seemed like they were about to get ugly for Auburn, but then craziness happened.
Turnover problems continued for the Lady Vols, and that allowed the Tigers to capitalize and claw their way back into the game.
With Tennessee leading 54-51 with three seconds remaining, Auburn's Daisa Alexander, the lone senior on the team, was able to draw a foul behind the arc and get the opportunity to shoot three free throws.
Alexander calmly knocked down all three foul shots to tie the game at 54 apiece.
Coming out of timeout, the Lady Vols executed their game plan when Jordan Horston drove down the middle of the lane and shot a floater in the paint with .6 seconds remaining to give Tennessee a 56-54 lead.
Craziness continued when Tennessee inexplicably fouled Auburn, thus sending Alexander back to the foul line to possibly send the game into overtime.
Alexander knocked down the first free throw, but her second attempt hit the back of the rim, as the Lady Vols quickly grabbed the rebound to seal the game for good.
The Tigers were led by Alexander, who scored 15 points, and Rennia Davis led the Lady Vols with a double-double of 22 points and 10 rebounds.
With that loss, the Tigers (10-17, 4-12 in SEC) now head into the SEC Tournament as a 12 seed and they will face Vanderbilt Wednesday morning 10 am CT in Greenville, South Carolina.
