There’s just been something special about 17-point deficits for Coach Flo’s Auburn squad.
On the road on January 12th, the Tigers overcame a 17-point lead and defeated the Vanderbilt Commodores in Nashville. A week later, Auburn dug their way out of the same hole to take down the Tennessee Volunteers at home.
After the first quarter in Auburn’s home contest against the fifth-ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs, the Tigers trailed by the oh so familiar 17-point margin.
Auburn was unable to use the comfortable situation to their advantage, as the Bulldogs led early and often in a 77-47 victory over Auburn on Thursday night at Auburn Arena.
Mississippi State used commanding first and fourth quarters to overpower the Tigers. State had three scorers in double figures, with Victoria Vivians, Chinwe Okorie and Teaira McCowan scoring 17, 16 and 15 points respectively. The Bulldogs shot an efficient 50 percent on the night, with an effective 45 percent mark from beyond the arc.
“I thought our girls made a great effort,” Auburn head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said. “It was an uphill battle for us to comeback from 21 down to make it a 6-point game and it used a lot of effort and energy. But Mississippi State is a very good team. It was a tough night for us.
“It’s no secret, we aren’t big. It’s hard to defend in there, Jessica Jones is the biggest that we have and she played 25 minutes, got in foul trouble and didn’t have a rebound. We have to move on, we’re not going to grow overnight, we have to keep playing and do what we do.”
Auburn owned the second and third periods of play, outscoring the Bulldogs 31-30 during that span. Brandy Montgomery led the Tigers with 17 points on 7 of 11 shooting, but had no assists or rebounds. Katie Frerking was rushed to the locker room at the start of the second quarter, but came right back onto the court within minutes. The senior forward played a well-rounded game, finishing with 13 points, 3 assists and 3 boards.
“I think we have to bottle that and play that way for four quarters,” Auburn senior guard Katie Frerking said. “When you’re playing a good team like Mississippi State, you have to put together four quarters of play. We didn’t in the first quarter and we didn’t in the fourth and that was the difference in the game. In the second and third quarters, we beat them.
“We see that we can play with teams like that. It’s effort, it’s how we play and its who we are. When we go in lulls where we don’t score we try to get in our press and our press was what was working for us.”
Characteristically, Auburn won the turnover battle, 16-14. Bulldogs head coach Vic Schaefer expressed his content with that margin.
“We didn’t get as many turnovers as we would have liked. But you just can’t get 23 against Auburn. When you get 23, they’re impossible to beat.”
Late in the third quarter, a quick Tiger scoring burst cut the Mississippi State lead down to six. The Bulldogs then broke the game wide-open with a 28-5 scoring run, kicking off the eruption with a 17-0 spurt. The Tigers 5 points in the final stanza was Auburn’s season-low for points in a quarter.
“It happened so fast, I really don’t know, good teams go on quick runs,” Flournoy said. “Obviously, we didn’t get stops and we didn’t score. Other than that, I can’t even play back to you what happened.”
The loss pins the Tigers down to 5-4 in the conference and 15-8 overall. No. 5 Mississippi State continues one of their best seasons in school history, now 22-1, second only to No. 4 South Carolina in the SEC. Auburn begins a two-game road trip this Sunday, when the Tigers clash with the Texas A&M Aggies in College Station, Texas. The SEC West showdown will tip at 1 p.m. CST on the SEC Network.
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