The Auburn Tigers fell to the 12th-ranked Tennessee Lady Volunteers for a second time this season after freshman Rennia Davis hit a bank-in three with 0.5 seconds to capture the win, 64-61.
Auburn saw its regular season end in a game that was back-and-forth for the whole 40 minutes with 14 ties and 15 lead changes.
“I thought our young ladies played extremely hard the whole game,” Auburn head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said. “We kept fighting, kept fighting. The game was right there for us, and our young ladies never gave up, just never gave up the whole game. We were relentless.”
The Tigers’ signature pressure defense was on full display Thursday night, exceeding their average of 23 turnovers a game and posting a plus-9 turnover margin.
“We’re not going to take any moral victories. I think we played well enough to win the basketball game, forced them into 24 turnovers and we scored 23 points off those turnovers," Williams-Flournoy said. "That’s our pressure defense. There were a few times offensively that we weren’t on point, but our ladies kept playing hard and they never even thought they didn’t have a chance to win this basketball game.”
Janiah McKay led the way offensively for the Tigers scoring 24 points and shooting 50 percent from the field. Daisa Alexander contributed 16 points and six steals, including the steal and score to tie the game with 11 seconds left in the game.
Auburn struggled in the paint against the Lady Volunteers, getting out-rebounded 34-21. The Tigers also struggled to get to the free throw line, their first free throw did not come until half way through the fourth quarter. Tennessee would convert 20-24 free throws compared to 4-5 from the Tigers.
Tennessee had the lead up to six in the fourth quarter, but Auburn battled to take the lead with 2:25 left in the game. After the Lady Vols recaptured the lead, Daisa Alexander stole an inbound pass and hit a lay up to tie the game up.
That's when Davis hit the game-clinching three with less than a second to go.
McKay led the Tigers this year with 480 points. Thompson finished with 227 rebounds on the season. Alexander’s six steals tonight gave her 80 for the season, which tied for sixth in Auburn history for a single-season.
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