BATON ROUGE, La. – Despite a hard-fought effort, the shorthanded Auburn Women’s Basketball team could not replicate their upset win in the battle of the Tigers against LSU last season, dropping their third in a row and two straight to start SEC play. LSU’s Tigers got the better of Auburn 73-63 after taking the lead in the second quarter and never relinquishing it.
The first quarter went as well as it could for the Auburn Tigers, taking a 5-4 lead off of a three pointer from Audia Young before extending that lead by forcing turnovers and scoring off of them. Auburn led LSU 16-11 at the end of one because of their tough and intense defensive pressure, which forced 6 early turnovers from the Tigers in purple and yellow. Auburn also knocked down two triples while LSU fell silent from behind-the-arc. All in all, it was looking up for the Tigers of Auburn.
The second quarter however, shut down any chances at an easy upset victory as LSU quickly regained and extended their advantage. LSU went on an 11-1 run to open the 2nd frame and won the quarter 27-8. The LSU Tigers shot an outrageous 66.7 percent from the field during this second quarter domination and limited the turnovers to just one. Auburn on the other hand only managed a measly 23.1 percent from the field and also turned it over six times. The sixth ranked Tigers went into the break with a 38-24 lead over Auburn.
The hope for a comeback started in the third but was met with stiff resistance by LSU. Both them and Auburn traded runs back and forth with Auburn trying to push back within reach and LSU trying to keep their double digit advantage. Both teams shot 50 percent from the field in the quarter as LSU managed to extend their lead to 15, with the score sitting at 54-39 through the end of three.
After an early push to put the game out of reach by LSU, Auburn managed to finish strong, ending on an 8-0 run to end the game and make the score a little more reasonable at 73-63. A tough loss to swallow for an Auburn team looking to find a signature win early in conference play, but fortunately, the SEC is full of teams they will have a chance to get that win against during the rest of conference play.
For LSU, Aneesah Morrow had 21 points on 9-12 shooting. Morrow dominated the first half offense for LSU, scoring 15 points including 8 during their second quarter run. Kailyn Gilbert was also a huge game changer for LSU in the second period, adding 11 points during the quarter and 17 for the game. Other notable scorers for the Tigers of LSU were Flau’Jae Johnson who had 12 and Mikaylah Williams who added 10.
Auburn’s offensive load was led by Audia Young, who had 19 in the loss 8 of them, including two threes came in the first quarter as Auburn took the early advantage. Deyona Gaston, the team’s leading scorer, had 16 despite serious foul trouble for much of the game, which became a huge storyline for Auburn. 10 of Gaston’s 16 came in the fourth frame as Auburn pushed the lead back down to 10. Taylen Collins also added double digits for Auburn, scoring 12.
After the matchup, Coach Johnnie Harris commented on the toughness of her team despite them being down key contributors like Kaitlyn Duhon and 20+ point per game scorer Taliah Scott, “Everybody had to step up a little bit. I’m just really proud of how tough they were. I thought with us not being able to really go full speed - they’re still banged up really bad - but they showed some toughness tonight.”
She also commented on the early foul trouble for leading scorer Deyona Gaston, saying, “That’s the story of the ballgame. She got in foul trouble, two quick ones early in the third quarter. When you have to sit her for so long, it’s just really hard, and they changed the way they guarded with her out of there.”
Auburn gets the Arkansas Razorbacks at home in Neville Arena on Thursday, January 9th in a game where fans are encouraged to wear pink as part of the Play 4 Kay fight against breast cancer. The game begins at 6 p.m. CT and will be live on SEC Network Plus or you can listen to it on the Auburn Sports Network.
