The 20-point comeback at Vanderbilt, the regular season sweep of Alabama and the program-record six SEC road wins are just a small sample of all the moments that defined the 2018-19 SEC regular season for the Auburn women's basketball team.
Auburn finished the SEC regular season with a record of 9-7, which is not only the best SEC record for the Tigers under head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy, but also the first winning record in SEC play since 2009.
The Tigers had plenty of other SEC firsts and season-bests under coach Williams-Flournoy. Like previously mentioned, the six SEC road wins is now the program record. The Tigers beat Alabama, Florida, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, Arkansas and LSU on the road this season.
Auburn had its fewest points allowed to Alabama under Coach Flo with 38 points allowed in the 77-38 victory on Feb. 17. The 6-seed Tigers face the 11-seed Crimson Tide again tonight at 7:30 p.m. CST.
Speaking of defense, Auburn led the SEC in steals per game this season with 12.2.
Individual players for Auburn made a significant impact during the SEC this season. Senior Janiah McKay was announced as a member of the All-SEC second team and the SEC All-Defensive team (19 points against Alabama this year, leads team in assists at 4.3 per games and is the leading scorer with 13.8 points per game, third in the SEC is steals per game with 2.2). Freshman Robyn Benton earned a spot on the SEC All-Freshman team (she is averaging 6.1 points a game coming off of the bench. She is one of the top SEC freshmen in scoring — in SEC play, she has scored double digit numbers three times).
Junior Daisa Alexander scored 42 combined points off the Tide this season with 10 rebounds and six assists.
Sophomore Unique Thompson grabbed her 500th rebound this season and is the third player in Auburn history to record 500 rebounds in her first two seasons. Thompson currently has 296 rebounds on the season which ranks her third in the SEC for rebounds this season.
This is the third matchup between the Tigers and the Tide this season. Auburn was 2-0 against the Tide during the regular season, winning the games at 66-56 and 77-38, respectively.
The key players to watch on Alabama’s side are Jasmine Walker and Ariyah Copeland. Walker leads the Tide against Auburn, having scored 27 off the Tigers this season with nine rebounds. Walker scored 22 points off of Vanderbilt in round one of the tournament.
Copeland has 24 points on the Tigers this year with 20 rebounds. She contributed 10 points in the Tide’s win against Vandy.
The winner of the matchup will move on to face Texas A&M in the tournament quarterfinals Friday at 7 p.m. CST.
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