It’s a clash of the Tigers on Thursday, as Auburn and Missouri meet in Columbia for Auburn’s second SEC game of the season, another road game.
This time, it’s against a team that just knocked No. 1-South Carolina off its unbeaten throne, just a week ago.
Missouri is barely on the outskirts of the Top 25. It was a mere five votes away from being the second ranked team that Auburn’s faced this season.
Instead, Missouri lies on the outside, looking for another win to add to its already impressive 12-2 resume this season. Auburn has its work cut out for it, Missouri is riding a four-game win streak.
Auburn’s Ma’Shaun Bostic is returning to her home state, while Missouri’s Lauren Hansen, who hit the game-winner against South Carolina, is facing her former team. Hansen played considerable time during her lone season on The Plains, starting most games for Auburn during her freshman stint.
Alabama handed Auburn its 17th consecutive SEC loss on Sunday when the Crimson Tide took down the Tigers 56-53 in Tuscaloosa. It was Auburn’s second-worst shooting performance of the season.
It can be considered that Auburn had not played a game nor been able to practice much due to COVID issues within the programs for two weeks prior. Thursday will be a chance to get back in the swing of things for Auburn, as it rode a six-game win streak into 2022 before Alabama ended it.
Aicha Coulibaly, Auburn’s leading scorer, is coming off her third double-double of the season. Another key scorer for Auburn, Honesty Scott-Grayson, got it going with a double-figure scoring performance.
Outside of the duo of Coulibaly and Scott-Grayson, the Tigers had 19 points combined from the rest of its roster.
Battling Missouri’s team will be similar to Alabama, the two are nearly neck and neck in points per game. Alabama averages 74.2 points per game, while Missouri holds a slight advantage at 74.5.
Leading the charge for Missouri is guard Aijha Blackwell and forward Haley Frank, who average 16.6 and 14.7 points per game, respectively. The third Missouri player averaging double figures in scoring is Hansen, with 10.5.
Having Blackwell and Frank on the court has helped make Missouri extremely efficient on both ends of the court. Blackwell is the SEC’s leading rebounder, while Frank holds the second-best field goal percentage in the conference.
Forcing Missouri to the free-throw line won’t provide much help either, the Tigers are the No. 1 free-throw shooting team in the SEC.
Auburn has the conference’s best free-throw shooter on its team though, in Sania Wells. The junior guard is 41-for-44 from the charity stripe this season, the only player in the SEC above 90%.
On its home court, Missouri is 7-0 this season, while Auburn brings a 2-3 road record into the contest.
Missouri has gotten out to fast starts and forced opponents to slow starts in the first half, which has been a vital part of its success this season. The team scores more points and allows the least amount of points in the first and second quarters.
Auburn has seen both sides of that this season. There have been slow starts, but also fast starts such as the one against Georgia Tech, where Auburn pulled off the upset. Another fast start will need to be in order if Auburn wants to take down Missouri.
Against Alabama, Auburn finished stronger than it started and will need to ride that momentum on Thursday.
The game will tip-off at 7 p.m. CST and be broadcast on SEC Network-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
