Senior Brandy Montgomery scored 25 points, and sophomore Janiah McKay picked up her first career double-double as Auburn had its highest-scoring SEC game in six years Sunday, defeating Ole Miss 83-60 at Auburn Arena.
The Tigers (12-5, 2-1 SEC) were strong in all phases of the game, scoring 30 points off turnovers while shooting 50 percent from the field and 53 percent from three-point range. Auburn also shared the ball well, racking up 25 assists, the most in a game in three seasons.
“Definitely a great offensive execution game for us,” Auburn head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said, “and a very good job of turning them over, but more importantly converting those turnovers into points.
“And actually to be honest with you, I didn’t think that we would be able to press up on them as much as we did because 5 (Erika Sisk) and 25 (Alissa Alston) are very quick, and sometimes pressing quick point guards it usually speeds them up. But they went to the press offense of actually kind of slowing it down a little bit, so that actually fed right into our hands. I thought (Montgomery and McKay) did a very good job. If they weren’t in the trap, then they were holding the middle.”
Montgomery’s 25 points came on her best shooting day of the season, knocking down 10 of her 15 field goal attempts (66.7 percent) and 5-of-6 (83.3 percent) from beyond the arc. In Auburn’s two SEC wins, Montgomery is 12-of-14 (85.7 percent) from three-point range, and her 25 points Sunday moved her up to 11th all-time at Auburn with 1,486 points. The 25 points for Montgomery come just one game after a dismal 1-13 shooting performance vs. South Carolina.
McKay scored 13 points and had 13 assists for her first career double-double. It was the most assists by an Auburn player since Najat Ouardad had 14 vs. Ole Miss in 2013, and it was Auburn’s first points/assists double-double since Ouardad accomplished the feat vs. Samford in 2012.
“Executing offensively allows us to set up in our press,” McKay said. “When we can set up in our press and turn people over it leads into our transition offense, which allows us to score in ways we want to score.”
Senior forward Katie Frerking added 11 points, and Erica Sanders scored a career-high nine off the bench. Jazmine Jones led the Tigers with seven rebounds, and Jessica Jones had three of Auburn’s 13 steals.
The Tigers started fast, jumping out to a 30-18 lead after one quarter – Auburn’s highest-scoring first quarter of the season – on the strength of 15 points off eight Ole Miss turnovers. The Tigers also converted from the charity stripe, knocking down 10-of-10 free throw attempts in the first period.
Ole Miss (12-4, 1-2 SEC) would get no closer than 11 points the rest of the way as Auburn extended its lead to 46-31 at halftime. The Tigers then opened the second half on a 7-0 run and never looked back.
Auburn’s 23-point margin of victory was its largest in an SEC game since the 2012-13 season when the Tigers picked up a 24-point win, also over Ole Miss.
Shequila Joseph led the Rebels with 16 points, and Alissa Alston added 12 off the bench.
Auburn hits the road again this week, traveling to Nashville, Tenn., to face Vanderbilt (10-6, 0-3) Thursday night. Game time is 7 p.m. CST at Memorial Gym.
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