On Wednesday, Dec. 16th, Auburn welcomed the Winthrop Eagles to town for some women’s basketball action.
This was the first game for Auburn since the overtime heartbreaker at Marquette, and the Tigers were looking to bounce back strongly. They were able to do so through their relentless defense.
Auburn was able to force 17 turnovers in the first half, 11 of those coming in the first 10 minutes of the game. Overall, Auburn forced 35 turnovers, which translated into 39 Auburn points. This was the second game this season in which the Tigers were able to force over 30 turnovers, with East Carolina being the other game.
Winthrop was only able to put up 17 points by halftime and 33 in the game. Auburn was able to hold Winthrop to single digits every quarter, allowing nine points in the first and eight in the following three quarters.
Offensively, Auburn shot 45.5 percent and hit a season high 11 three-pointers. Winthrop, on the other hand, was held to a season-low 23.5 shooting percentage. The Tigers also had an advantage in the rebound and assist categories.
"I thought our team came out and played with great effort right at the beginning, and that was one of the things that we talked about,” said Auburn coach Terri Williams-Flournoy. "We watched some film, and I wanted them to see that that was not Auburn that played at Marquette, and everything that we did wrong at Marquette we needed to clean it up today. I thought they really did that this morning.”
Three Tigers were able to get into double digits this afternoon: Tra'Cee Tanner, Brandy Montgomery and Katie Frerking. Montgomery lead all scorers with 21 points. Jazmine Jones lead the team with six assists.
One major improvement from the Marquette game was the play from the free-throw line. Against Marquette, the Tigers shot 13-30 (43 percent) from line, while this afternoon they shot 5-7 (71 percent).
The Tigers travel to Towson, Maryland, this weekend for a pair of games. They play Coppin State on Saturday at 1 p.m. CT and Towson University on Sunday at 1 p.m.
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