The Auburn women's basketball team lost a tough, seesaw home game to the University of Florida 65-57 Sunday, Feb. 10.
The loss dropped Auburn's record to 13-11, 2-9 SEC while University of Florida's record improved to 15-9, 4-6 SEC.
The game was much closer than the final score indicated, "Unfortunately this is another game that goes in the category of we should've won, we could've won," said Terri Williams-Flournoy, Auburn University women's basketball coach.
The loss came with the Tigers' starting point guard Najat Ouardad sidelined with an injury.
"Of course it's a tough night without our starting point guard," Flournoy said, "You lose your point guard, it's like losing your quarterback, it's like losing your pitcher. It's a lot."
Freshman Chadarryl Clay recorded 6 points, 6 assists and 6 turnovers in her start. "[Clay] had 28 minutes on the floor, 6 assists and 6 turnovers. She tried," Flournoy said.
Flournoy also said that she did not know when to expect Ouardad to return to playing.
Despite the injury looming over the game, things started off positively for the Tigers as Auburn won the opening tipoff, and quickly leapt out to an 11-2 lead with 13:24 to play in the first half.
It was the largest lead of the first half, and Auburn's largest lead of the game; however, it would not last, and the game was tied at 26 at the end of the first half.
"We gave a tremendous second-half effort," said Amanda Butler University of Florida women's basketball coach.
"We played, I thought, probably about 30 minutes of good basketball, maybe 28. We had a really, really slow start, and again I'm really proud of our team for that not setting the tone for the whole game," Butler said, "When we finally shook that off and we decided how good Auburn was and what it was going to feel like to have to play to beat them, I thought we made great changes of intensity."
A big difference between Auburn's two halves of basketball was the team's rebounding. In the first half Auburn was outrebounded 21-19, but in the second half the Tigers were outrebounded 27-19 leading to a final, lopsided rebound total of 48-35.
"It's very frustrating. We haven't been rebounding well the last couple of games and it's been giving up offensive rebounds," Flournoy said, "Offensive rebounding is nothing that takes any type of skill, it's just extra effort to want to go get I, and Florida wanted to go get the ball."
Flournoy also said that the Gators' rebounding ability was a concern of the Tigers heading into the game.
Even through an uneven second half the Tigers were competitive until the very end of the game, and were only losing by 3 points with10 minutes left to play.
There were still positives to take away from the 65-57 loss. Junior Tanner Tyrese led all scorers with 17 points, and the Tigers displayed improved free throw shooting.
"Today we shot 15 for 18 from the free throw. Against Georgia we go 3 for 15, so if we made our free throws, we probably could have won the game," Flournoy said.
The women's basketball team will have a bye week this week. Flournoy said that she plans to spend the off week recruiting.
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