In the second game of the season, the Auburn women’s basketball team continued to struggle defensively. It was an issue that head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy was critical of after Wofford, and while Auburn escaped Wofford, it was unable to deal with the Old Dominion Monarchs.
Old Dominion put up 89 points, 35 of which came from Ajah Wayne, who went 6-of-8 from 3-point range and was 14-of-20 on the night.
The Tigers ended up losing 89-77, getting double-digit scoring from Annie Hughes, Daisa Alexander, Unique Thompson and Brooke Moore. Thompson put up another double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds while Alexander led the team with 17 points.
“We’re not gonna beat anyone giving up 89 points,” Williams-Flournoy said after the game. “That’s way too many points. That’s not who we are. That’s not what we do. It doesn’t matter how well we play offensively we can never give up 89 points.”
While Auburn is a very young team, defensive issues are an issue consistent throughout the whole team.
“It’s not all the young ones; it's a lot of the older ones that are making mistakes,” Williams-Flournoy said after the game.
Thompson echoed Williams-Flournoy’s thoughts.
“We just have to be more vocal on the backline because that’s where we see everything,” Thompson said. “Instead of us just trying to hurry up and get out there and cover we have to be able to tell our guards to come take middle. There was a lot of confusion with the replacing middle, so we have to make sure that we communicate with our guards to go replace middle so we can take the over-the-top pass.”
Following her first collegiate game where she put up 10 points, Hughes had 12 points to go along with four rebounds. Hughes also played the most minutes on the team (35), something Williams-Flournoy would like to fix.
“She’s doing well. She’s playing too many minutes, though,” Williams-Flournoy said. “That’s just a lot of minutes, especially for someone that’s playing the top of the press. We’ve got to find somebody else that can play the top of the press and be able to give her a breather. Annie’s gonna play hard every single possession and it’s the second game of the year so we can’t wear out now. It’s a long season. But I’m very proud of her play.”
Hughes was joined by fellow freshman Lauren Hansen who didn’t play against Wofford but had seven points for the Tigers tonight.
Auburn will look to learn from its mistakes and will travel to Birmingham to take on UAB on Nov. 21 at 6 p.m. CST.
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