Auburn took to the road Sunday afternoon for their final game of the 2017 season, defeating the Arkansas Razorbacks, 70-64 in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The victory thrust the Tigers to a 17-13 overall finish and a 7-9 record in conference play. Arkansas was unable to win just their third SEC game, finishing at 2-14 in the conference and 13-16 for the season.
The Tigers used a 30-point fourth quarter to down the Hogs, who held a seven-point lead in the final period of play. Auburn shot 62.5 percent in the fourth, kicked off by a 17-5 run to start the concluding stanza.
“It was unbelievable,” Auburn head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said. “We couldn’t buy a basket in the second or third quarter. But once again, it was our defense that got us back. We made great defensive plays and scored in transition (in the fourth quarter).”
Auburn senior Brandy Montgomery led all scorers with 18, followed by sophomore Janiah McKay’s 17. Senior Katie Frerking recorded 16 points, along with 5 assists and 10 rebounds. The Tigers shot 35 percent on all field goals and the same number from the beyond the arc.
The Tiger defense forced 19 turnovers, a number that normally would not bode well for the success of the Tigers. The visitors from the Plains combated this shortcoming by committing a season-low seven turnovers of their own, with Arkansas scoring 19 off those mistakes.
Auburn scored 20 in the first quarter to claim a five-point lead. The Tigers then failed to score for the first six minutes of play in the second quarter and the first five minutes in the third. McKay’s jumper with 6:52 remaining gave Auburn their first lead since the start of the second. The Tigers never trailed for the reminder of the night.
Auburn’s Erica Sanders and Montgomery came up clutch at the free throw line late, polishing off Auburn’s aggressive night in the paint with a 14-19 mark at the charity stripe. The freebies came after the Razorbacks Keiryn Swenson drilled a three-pointer with 25 seconds left, cutting the lead down to just two.
The loss pins Arkansas down to the 14th and final seed in the SEC, setting up a first-round date with the Florida Gators. Auburn, the eighth seed in the tourney, finds themselves matched up with nine-seed Georgia in the opening round in Greenville, South Carolina. The Bulldogs escaped Auburn Arena with a 57-51 on February 12.
Coach Flo’s squad closes out the year with back to back wins over LSU and Arkansas, following an ugly six-game losing streak that spanned almost the entire month of February. The tip between Auburn and Georgia in Greenville is set for 11 a.m. CST on Wednesday.
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