The Auburn women's basketball team seized the regular season SEC title Sunday afternoon at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum.
For the Tigers, (27-2, 12-2 SEC) this is their first SEC title in 20 years.
In front of 5,616 fans, Auburn outgunned the Arkansas Razorbacks (17-12, 6-8 SEC), 94-57.
After the game, the Tigers honored their senior class of Whitney Boddie, DeWanna Bonner, Sherell Hobbs and Travesha Jackson.
Their class is the first recruiting class under head coach Nell Fortner and has, so far, compiled an 81-42 record overall.
"They'll be my best friends from here on out," Bonner said. "We spend every day together. We're always gonna keep in contact."
Arkansas scored the first point. That would be the only time they led in the entire game.
"It was a rough day right from the beginning," said Arkansas head coach Tom Collen. "They played near perfection. Hats off to them. They're the SEC Champs. They deserve to be."
Auburn ended with its largest margin of the game, a 37-point lead. They usually win by around 20 points on average.
During the first half they scored 54 points and gave up no turnovers.
"When you don't turn the ball over, you have the opportunity to score that many points," Fortner said.
Fortner seemed pleasantly surprised about the performance of her team.
"We were very focused, very disciplined," Fortner said. "We took them out of their offensive rhythm. That was the difference in the game, because they can score a lot of points."
Bonner, a National Player-of-the-Year candidate, led the Tigers with 25 points.
Bonner passed Vickie Orr's Auburn all-time high with 2,052 points; she is now 16 points away from Becky Jackson's record of 2,068.
She also surpassed the 1,000 rebound mark and now has 1,006, which ties for third-most all time with Vickie Orr.
"I'm so happy right now," Bonner said. "I'm so proud of our team and our coaches. We worked so hard for it and I'm just so glad with the way we came out tonight and played."
Fellow seniors Hobbs and Boddie both scored in double-digits with 18 and 10, respectively, while true freshman Chantel Hilliard added 11.
Auburn effectively sank 51.5 percent of its field goals, 25 percent of its three-pointers and 69.7 percent of its free throws.
The Tigers only turned the ball over six times while forcing 21 turnovers from the Razorbacks.
"I just think we ran into a buzz saw," Collen said. "But, one positive I think our team needs to hear about is four years ago, when we played Auburn, this team was awful. Now, they've got a packed house and they've got an SEC Championship. I'm glad our kids are here to witness this so they understand what it takes and that they can't get there if they don't go back and work."
The Razorbacks had the momentum of a five game winning streak but couldn't shake Auburn's defense.
Arkansas shot 39.3 percent from the field, 17.6 percent from the arc and 66.7 percent from the line.
Now that the regular season is over, the Tigers have the No. 1 overall seed in next week's SEC Tournament.
The Tigers play at noon tomorrow in North Little Rock, Ark. Auburn will take on the winner of the Ole Miss Georgia game at the Alltel Arena.
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
