The women's basketball team is looking to notch their first victory in the month of February when they travel to Baton Rouge Sunday to face the LSU Tigers after a week break from play.
Coming off two close defeats and two losses of an average of almost 18 points this month, Auburn (11-15, 3-10) takes on an LSU (17-8, 7-5) team that has won three straight contests.
Auburn's most recent loss came at home to the Arkansas Razorbacks, 51-48.
In a back-and-forth battle, the Tigers lost the lead in the last 1:20 of the second half.
"It was a very disappointing loss today," said coach Nell Fortner. "We had some defensive breakdowns towards the end of the game, and that's what cost us the game. We didn't do well at the free-throw line, but we still gave ourselves that chance to win and it was a disappointing loss."
Fortner was especially critical of her team's defense.
"I thought there were some things with our defense that went better for us this game, but we had some fundamental breakdowns within that defense that were not good," she said.
The LSU Tigers are 12-3 at home in the Maravich Center this season.
LSU is led by senior LaSandra Barrett, who has averaged more than 16 points off the bench in each of the Tigers' last three wins, one of which was against No. 5 Kentucky.
Barrett is a candidate for the 2012 John Wooden Award and the State Farm Wade Trophy.
Auburn will use a balanced attack to combat Barrett's scoring ability, drawing on four Tigers who are averaging between 8.7 and 10.4 points per game.
Sophomore guard/forward Tyrese Tanner leads the way with 10.4, followed by sophomore guard Camille Glymph and junior guard/forward Blanche Alerson, each of whom are averaging 9.3 points.
Against Arkansas, Glymph came off the bench to lead the Tigers with 10 points.
Auburn has three conference games before the SEC Tournament in Nashville, closing out the regular season with home contests against Alabama Feb. 23 and Ole Miss Feb. 26.
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