The women's basketball team came out of last weekend's invitational with a win, a loss and a long to-do-list before this week's home game against Alabama State.
Head Coach Terri Williams-Flournoy began her first season with Auburn at the Sheraton Raleigh Wolfpack Invitational in tournament play against the Maine Black Bears on Friday, Nov. 9 and the North Carolina State Wolfpack on Saturday in the invitational's championship game.
The team's strengths and weaknesses that factored into a 71-41 victory against Maine and an 85-71 loss against NC State in the tournament finals were evident preseason and were focus points of team members and coaches alike.
Senior guard and forward Blanche Alverson said last week that the team needed to improve on its defensive effort.
After Saturday's loss to NC State, Williams-Flournoy reiterated that in a post-game radio interview.
"We don't play very good defense," Williams-Flournoy said. "A lot of the time we gamble a little bit too much, and if we learn how to just do our defense, stay within our defensive principles and our defensive groove, we'll be a better defensive team."
After practice on Monday, Nov. 12, junior guard and forward Tyrese Tanner said the problem was not the game plan.
"We were really confident before the game," Tanner said. "We watched film a lot, and we knew what we were going to get into."
Defensively, Tanner said the Tigers must stay aggressive.
"Our defense with Maine... we played really aggressive, and just with the defense with NC State we backed off a little, and we weren't as aggressive," Tanner said. "Really for the NC State game our defense lost the game. We didn't execute as we should have and so I think with these two upcoming games that we're practicing really hard on defense."
With two games down and vital experience acquired, Tanner foresees different outcomes for the upcoming games of the season.
"I think that we should at least force a whole bunch of turnovers and get a lot of steals, and that we should win these games easy," Tanner said.
In her radio interview, Williams-Flournoy said defensive strength can help on the offensive side of the court as well.
"What defense does is give you a lot of confidence on the offensive end, and I think we began to make some shots that we had missed in the first half," Williams-Flournoy said.
Tanner was one of the few consistent offensive performers for the Tigers over the weekend and was named the Southeastern Conference Player of the Week.
Tanner opened the tournament with a team-high 26 points against Maine and followed that with a 15-point effort in the team's loss to NC State. She also leads the team in rebounding and averaged 8.5 rebounds per game for the weekend.
"I just have to give credit to my team. It's not an 'I' effort," she said. "It's not just for me. It's for my whole team."
The team will play Alabama A&M on Sunday, Nov. 18 at 2 p.m.
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