When four players score in double figures and your opponent has more turnovers than shots made, good things usually happen. Today that was the case for Auburn.
Daisa Alexander led the way in scoring for the Tigers with 22 points and the Tigers defense forced Alabama to turn the ball over 22 times in the 77-38 win over Alabama on Sunday at Auburn Arena.
The 38 points scored by Alabama is the fewest allowed to the Tide by head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy during her Auburn tenure. The previous record was 39 points in 2013. The Tigers have now swept Alabama for the third time in six seasons under Williams-Flournoy.
Not only did the starting five for Auburn combine for 47 points, but Auburn also got a big boost from its bench, which scored 30 points in the win. The Tigers also scored 26 points off of the Tide’s 22 turnovers.
Auburn not only dominated on the offensive side of things but defensively as well. Besides forcing Alabama to turn the ball over 22 times, the Tigers also out-rebounded the Tide to the tune of 42 total rebounds to Alabama’s 27, with 19 of those 42 rebounds coming on the defensive side of the ball for Auburn.
"That's about as good as you can ask for right there," Williams-Flournoy said of the team's first-half defensive performance. "They had some shots that they just missed because some of those were open, so we were lucky enough for them to miss. But we did get the defensive rebounds, though, which we usually don't do. We usually get the offensive rebounds, but we got the defensive rebounds this time."
The Tigers also got a big boost from freshman guards Brooke Moore and Robyn Benton, who both had 11 points off the bench. For Moore, she now has had six games this season in double-digit scoring.
Auburn now faces a tough stretch of games to finish the season; the Tigers host Missouri (19-8, 8-5 in the SEC) on Sunday, then go on to host No.11 South Carolina (19-6, 11-1 in the SEC) before ending the regular season in Baton Rouge against LSU (15-9, 6-6 in the SEC).
Tonight was not a night to look ahead for the Tigers, though. It was about sending out players like senior guard Janiah McKay out with a win against one of their biggest rivals.
“That feels great,” McKay said of the win. “The basketball Iron Bowl, you can’t ask for anything better than that. It felt really good; I’m just proud of my teammates, I thought you know we redeemed ourselves tonight. We haven’t been playing our best basketball, and so I think everyone really listened to like the game plan and really made a concerted effort, everyone was talking, everyone was locked in and coach Flo didn’t have to beg us to keep playing hard.
"We continued to stay focused, everyone was talking on the floor, and I thought the team displayed a lot of resilience and not just giving up, continuing to keep the tempo, keep the pressure on them and finish the game strong.”
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