Auburn’s fourth-quarter comeback fell just short as the Tigers lost a close one to Iowa State, 67-64.
Down by 10 with less than two minutes to play, Janiah McKay made three straight 3-pointers to tie the game at 64-64. The Cyclone defense did not allow the Tigers to get shots off in the final two possessions, and an Iowa State dagger with nine seconds left sealed it.
In the loss, Unique Thompson continued to dominate, recording her third double-double of the season after a 19-point, 14-rebound performance.
McKay struggled to find the bottom of the net until her late-game heroics, totaling 14 points on 5 of 14 shooting. Emari Jones lit it up from three, nailing 50 percent of her shots behind the arc.
“There were some time-and-score situations down at the end that will take away from how well we started the game,” said Auburn head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy. “We should have kept going inside to (Thompson). Give Iowa State credit, they started packing it in a little more and taking away the inside game, but I still think we could have gotten the ball inside to her.”
The Tigers dominated in the first half, leading by 15 at one point and went into the half with a 9-point lead. But the second half was a different story as the Tigers seemed to run out of gas after their third game in five days. The team has traveled 3,700 combined miles since Saturday.
The struggles were evident in the box score with the Tigers shooting 41.1 percent in the first half, but only 31 percent in the second half. Iowa State took advantage of the Tigers’ tired legs and shot 40 percent from behind the arc in the second half.
“It was tough,” Williams-Flournoy said. “They got tired. It’s been a long (few days). The travel has been tough. It’s hard traveling, traveling, traveling. That’s no excuse, but we got tired. And our bench isn’t as strong right now. We’ll be better when we get our other players back that have been out.”
Auburn will have an 11-day break before its next game against Louisiana-Lafayette on Sunday, Nov. 25.
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