DeWanna Barber: junior guard, shoots a field goal in the Tigers’ 83-72 victory over the Gamecocks Sunday. The Tigers are 18-7 overall and 6-4 in the SEC. Kyle Cooper / ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR
The Auburn Tigers handed an 83-72 defeat to the South Carolina Gamecocks last Sunday.
The Tigers had little time to rest after beating Alabama 79-49 last Thursday.
“It was an important win for us today to continue on with where we’re wanting to go to accomplish our goals this year,” coach Nell Fortner said. “It was a great crowd. It was a big day for basketball at Auburn. It was a great cause, the promotion for the game, the breast cancer awareness and to win an SEC game. So it was a good day.”
This particular game was a part of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s Think Pink initiative. Both coaching staffs were asked to wear pink to help spread breast cancer awareness.
It was difficult to tell the Auburn fans from the South Carolina fans during the game.
Both teams’ fans wore pink instead of their traditional school colors.
Right after the toss up, junior Sherell Hobbs scored the first points for Auburn with a pair of free throws. Freshman Alli Smalley netted Auburn’s next points with a three pointer.
During the first half, Auburn didn’t seem to be on fire on the court, and South Carolina was able to hang only a few layups behind Auburn.
“I really wasn’t surprised,” junior Sherell Hobbs said. “They’re big game, that’s on the inside. They had a 6-4 guard. Obviously, I’m not 6-4, and that was kind of difficult and like the main thing we were focusing on was rebounding, make sure we box them up.”
Hobbs said they were trying to box out South Carolina player Demetress Adams and not let her get any offensive rebounds.
Hobbs, Smalley and junior DeWanna Bonner all scored 18 points that game.
“I just took the shots that I had,” Hobbs said. “There are so many people focused on DeWanna, that opens shots up for me. So I really don’t think that she’s having a bad game cause it’s hard to come out every night when you’ve got three or four people on you every night. So she makes my job a whole lot easier than what people think. But it wasn’t that she was having an off night. It’s just they were focusing on her, which made her shots look difficult.”
Most Auburn fans could tell Bonner wasn’t playing like her normal self in the first half, but after halftime, she came back and started putting points on the board.
“I came out kind of slow today,” Bonner said. “I wasn’t really focused on my scoring.”
Bonner finished with her 26th career double-double with 18 points and 12-13 from the free throw line.
“For whatever reason, Bonner doesn’t play well against South Carolina, I’m not sure what the reason is,” Fortner said. “I thought she came back in the second half and did a really good job of getting to the free throw line.”
Fortner said Bonner had to get her points in a different way Sunday.
“She had to come back and be determined to do that in the second half, and I’m really proud of her for that,” Fortner said. “That’s probably the best South Carolina has played all year long. Their shooting was on fire, so we had to shoot well also,” said Fortner.
Auburn will be on the road for its next two games.
The Tigers will be in Oxford, Miss. playing the Ole Miss Rebels tonight at 8.
Sunday, the Tigers will travel to Athens, Ga., and face the Georgia Bulldogs at 1:30 p.m.
