KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Auburn women’s basketball made a midweek trip up to Knoxville to take on the No. 15 Tennessee Volunteers. Despite an encouraging start, the Tigers couldn’t keep up and suffered their ninth SEC loss, 61-99.
Despite coming in as heavy underdogs, Auburn came out unafraid and unfazed. Led by a ten-point quarter from Yuting Deng, the Tigers held a surprising lead for much of the early going and ended the first ten minutes down just two, 22-20.
Auburn began to fall away in the second quarter, however. Tennessee shot 11-15 from the floor on the way to building a 34-50 lead headed into halftime, with nine different Volunteers knocking down a field goal. For Auburn, only DaYona Gaston managed more than two second-quarter points, knocking down two field goals and two free throws for six points in the quarter
Tennessee continued to build on the lead in the second half, led by lights out three point shooting. The Volunteers were 9-15 from behind the arc in the second half, led by three triples from Jewel Spear. Though the Tigers tried to fight back, they never were able to draw any closer than 11 points in the second half.
The lights-out shooting from the Vols, combined with an 11-28 second half shooting performance from Auburn, meant the game started to slip away quickly for the Tigers. The fourth quarter put the exclamation point on the night for Tennessee, who outscored Auburn 28-9 across the final ten minutes.
The Volunteers finished the game on a 19-2 run, holding Auburn without a field goal in the last 5:34 of the game. The Tigers struggled to compete with Tennessee's rotation as well, with seven Vols scoring eight or more points and five scoring in double-digits. It was clear that Auburn was struggling to match the relentless attack, something Auburn head coach Johnnie Harris touched on following the game.
“Their depth just wore us down,” Harris said. “We were trying to run with them, and I think we got caught up in playing their game instead of getting it down the court and trying to run something. That’s the way they’re built, and that’s their game.”
The top Tennessee scorer was Jewel Spear with 17 points, 15 of which came from three-point range. Closely behind Spear were Ruby Whitehorn and Zee Spearman with 15 and 14 points, respectively. Tennessee also won the assist battle 23-17, led by Jewel, Samara Spencer, and Talaysi Cooper with four each.
Senior forward DeYona Gaston led Auburn in scoring yet again with her second 24 point game in a row, the first time Gaston has recorded consecutive 20-point performances in SEC play. Gaston also was Auburn’s leading rebounder, securing a double-double with 12 rebounds. Yuting Deng was the next-highest scorer for the Tigers, racking up 13 points. Mar’shaun Bostic led Auburn in assists with eight, four ahead of the next-closest Tiger Taylen Collins.
Auburn will look to bounce back on Sunday in Neville Arena as the Tigers welcome the Vanderbilt Commodores to the plains. Vanderbilt enters the contest 18-6 and 5-5 in the SEC, nearly identical to Tennessee’s 18-6 and 5-6 records. Coverage for the game can be found on Sun. on SEC Network at 3 p.m.
Though Auburn suffered a rough 0-5 start to SEC play, the Tigers’ 3-4 rebound since then should give the Auburn faithful some hope that this squad will not quit fighting for the remainder of the season.
