Auburn, Ala—Auburn Basketball goes 2-0 against LSU this weekend, as the Auburn Tigers (12-5, 1,3) defeated the #7 LSU Tigers (16-2, 3-1) in Neville Arena 67-62 in a thrilling Tiger showdown.
On the game itself, Coach Johnnie Harris said, “They prepared well, they played hard, we got to get them on their heels, and I think we came out and did just that.”
Not only did Auburn defeat the number seven team in the country and defending national champions, but they also did it in front of a record-breaking crowd of 7,720 people for an Auburn Women’s basketball game.
On the crowd, Harris said, A crowd like this helps you put all of that together, and the crowd fed off us, but we absolutely fed off their energy.”
With the crowd being as loud as it was, it was sometimes hard to tell if the people were there to see Auburn or LSU, but what was noticeable was that when the crowd got loud for Auburn, shots seemed to fall easier for them, and harder for LSU.
It wasn’t just the crowd though, that made a win today possible for the Auburn Tigers, it was the combined efforts of Honesty Scott-Grayson on offense and JaMya Mingo-Young on defense.
Honesty Scott Grayson led Auburn’s scoring tonight with 21 points, and had five rebounds, two assists, and two steals, creating many of Auburn’s scoring opportunities, and scoring many of Auburn’s points allowing for Auburn’s victory.
Auburn’s best plays came with their defensive effort, LSU Coach Kim Mulkey said, “Anything we tried to do whether it was a pass or a shot, they made it hard.”
Coach Mulkey summed up Auburn’s efforts today perfectly, and one of Auburn’s best plays that perhaps helped sure up the game, was with around 10 seconds remaining when Angel Reese had the ball and was driving to score, Mingo-Young was able to get a hand on the ball and get a steal resulting in a turnover, and she ended up at the line afterward.
This play by Mingo-Young practically sealed the game for Auburn, and Scott-Grayson said, “I’m very proud of her for getting it for us, that was big time.”
Mingo-Young’s steal, and then getting fouled certainly allowed Auburn to have breathing room especially after she made both free throws. This pushed LSU to rush to score, in the hopes of tying the game, but they were unsuccessful thus allowing Auburn to emerge victorious.
Overall, Auburn played a great basketball game with effort and tenacity on both sides of the ball, and now that they have one win in the SEC conference after a 3 game-losing streak, they can carry the momentum from this win against LSU.
After this win against LSU, Auburn heads to Nashville Tennessee to face off against the Vanderbilt Commodores (16-2, 3-1) with both teams looking to continue their success in SEC conference play.
