Auburn Women's basketball came away with an easy win Sunday, beating the Georgia College and State University Bobcats 73-50 in an exhibition game.
Four Tigers scored in double digits, while sophomore guard Parrisha Simmons took a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
Auburn scored first and the game remained relatively close until the Tigers scored 17 unanswered points and held GCSU without a goal for almost nine minutes.
The first half ended with the Tigers up 40-18.
Auburn was slow to start after halftime, only scoring one point in five and a half minutes.
The team bounced back and finished strong, but was only 9-of-28 at the free-throw line.
Head coach Nell Fortner said that statistic was a big concern.
"We are getting high percentage shots taken away from us and they are sending us to the line and we are not knocking them down and that's not good," Fortner said. "Some days you just have off days at the free-throw line, but we will spend a lot more time with our free throws."
Team leaders for the Bobcats were Dominique Huffin with 16 points and Tammeshia Law with seven rebounds. GCSU was 25.8 percent in field goal range, hitting just 17-of-66.
The Auburn team lost four starters from last season, so the exhibition was a good way to get first-time jitters out of new players.
Coach Fortner said she felt the freshmen came in, fought and did some nice things.
"I thought Nicolle Thomas came in and shot the ball real well," Fortner said. "I thought Morgan Toles really did a good job for her first performance here. It's a whole new world for Morgan, but she's done a great job so far in practice, and she's just going to get better and better."
Team leader Simmons said she felt the atmosphere and fans were great. She said she felt the team let the energy down in the second half and the team needs to keep hustling.
"This game helped to get our thoughts where we need help, both on offense and defense," Simmons said. "We need to really practice on defense and contesting the three and running the play right."
Junior guard Alli Smalley is the lone returning starter from last season. She said the exhibition game opened the team's eyes to a lot of areas that need work and she hopes it can make changes before Friday's game against Troy.
"One of the main things is that we have to go hard and be more fluent for 40 minutes," Smalley said. "There are some other key things like free throws and other offensive and defensive things that we need to work on."
She said she was concerned about only having nine players, and the team as a whole, needs to step up and have the same vision and goals.
The team's next home game will be Friday against Troy. Smalley said she is excited for the game, but Fortner said there needs to be improvement.
"We have a long way to go, but the biggest thing that I saw today is that we are such a different team than we were last year, and we are still trying to figure out who that team is," Fortner said. "We will get better, this is our first game and you kind of expect that out of your first game."
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.
