It will be a homecoming for head coach Johnnie Harris when Auburn travels to Little Rock on Wednesday.
The first-year head coach was born in the Little Rock area, specifically Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and is looking to lead her team to a third consecutive victory. She also began her coaching career at Little Rock as an assistant in 1999.
Auburn is coming off of one of the most historic upsets in recent program history, a 59-51 upset over No. 18 Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Not only did the Tigers win the game, but they held the lead nearly the entire time.
But the upset isn’t something that the Tigers are sitting on. The focus is now on Little Rock.
“We’re still hungry, I’m still hungry, I hope they’re hungry,” Harris said of her team. “We’re not going to let them get fed and happy off of this win. We’re gonna go back, we’re gonna work.”
The Tigers saw an immediate uptick in ball security against Georgia Tech, limiting their turnovers to a season-low nine in the game. Auburn’s also improving in playing clean, hard-fought basketball. Over the last three games, the Tigers are seeing a downward trend in fouls committed, the latest outing being a season-low of 20.
It’s allowing starters, whom the Tigers heavily rely on for scoring, to stay in the game longer because foul trouble is becoming less of a problem.
Unfortunately for Auburn, it’s something Little Rock has improved on as well. The Trojans have committed less than 20 fouls in each of their previous three games. They’re 3-0 in that stretch and 3-1 on the season.
The one loss was a season-opening loss to Missouri State, which was a tournament team last season, but Little Rock committed 21 turnovers in that game.
Little Rock’s offense is averaging 61.5 points per game, while Auburn’s defense is giving up an average of 57.8 points per game. On the contrary, Auburn’s offense is scoring slightly lower at 60.7 points per game while Little Rock’s defense allows 57.3 points per game.
It’s setting up to be a fairly even matchup for just the second contest between the two programs.
Auburn dominated Little Rock 106-37 on Dec. 2, 2002, the only previous match-up, but those were two separate teams. This go-around, one is riding on a three-game winning streak while the other is looking to prove its latest upset win wasn’t a fluke.
“We know Little Rock is a good team,” Harris said. “I played against them a lot. Excited about going there, but I do know that we’ll have a battle on our hands.”
Tip-off is set for noon CST and the game will be broadcast on ESPN-plus.
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Originally from Helena, Ala., Caleb Jones is a senior studying journalism at Auburn University. He has been on staff with The Plainsman since 2019.
You can follow him here on Twitter: @calebjsports
