Auburn fell victim to another SEC foe in a nail-biter versus Florida in Gainesville. The 68-63 loss extends the Tigers' conference losing streak to 20. The Tigers are now 8-7 on the season and 0-4 in conference play.
To start the game, Florida went on an 8-0 run to take an early 10-4 lead and maintained control of the game through the first quarter. At one point, the Gators led by 13 and looked like they were going to make it ugly.
“We’ve got to do a better job of starting games better so we’re not using so much energy to get back into it,” said Auburn associate head coach Bob Starkey.
From there, Auburn put it together in the rest of the game and was not outscored in another quarter after the first.
“I just thought we played harder and better [after the first quarter], but in this league you’ve got to play harder and better for 40 minutes,” Starkey said.
The second quarter was a back-and-forth brawl. The frame ended up 16-16, allowing Florida to carry a seven-point lead into halftime, but Auburn stayed in the game thanks to Aicha Coulibaly, who racked up 14 of Auburn’s 30 first-half points and led in rebounds with seven.
Although Florida only owned a 37-30 lead at the half, the Gators were able to keep their advantage by stealing seven turnovers and converting them for nine points in the opening half.
Florida held control of the ball and was able to get off quality, unchallenged shots in the first half, although no one player dominated Auburn. Seven different players scored for Florida, and none of them scored 10 or more.
The Tigers fought back in the third quarter and made it a two-point contest several times, but they could never get a lead. Every time Auburn threatened Florida’s lead, the Gators made an easy basket on the other end.
In the fourth quarter, Auburn finally broke through and attained its first lead when Coulibaly hit a free throw to make it 55-54 with just over five minutes left in the game. The Tigers got hot and went on a 9-0 run to go up by three and force a Florida timeout with 4:19 left in the affair.
With a 59-58 lead and just over two minutes to go in the fourth quarter, Coulibaly fouled out. Auburn had to try to secure a road win without its biggest contributor.
Florida hit a pair of free throws to steal the lead back with 34 seconds to go. With 21 seconds remaining, Auburn’s second leading scorer with nine points, Honesty Scott-Grayson, fouled out.
Needing a player to step up with its top two scorers out of the contest, Auburn put the ball in the hands of Riley Donahue. Down by three with four seconds on the clock, she put up a prayer 3-pointer. The ball fell just shy, bouncing off the front of the rim.
Head coach Johnnie Harris was disappointed with the team’s “selfish play” late in the game, which caused two of the Tigers' best players to foul out. Coulibaly fouled out on a technical foul, and Scott-Grayson got called for a defensive foul, which Harris described as “ill-advised.”
In desperation mode, Auburn was forced to foul. The Gators sunk two more free throws, extending their lead to five and putting it out of reach.
“It’s a possession game," Harris said. "Every possession matters, and so your best player cannot get a foul there … now they have momentum and our best player is out."
No. 51 Precious Johnson made her first start for the Tigers in the game. She seemed to add some size in the paint for the Tigers. Although it was mostly Coulibaly doing the scoring, the 6-foot-5 sophomore complemented Coulibaly with a big presence inside. The center put up seven points and five rebounds in 29 minutes.
“I thought Precious, for her second game and first start, gave us some really quality minutes,” Starkey said. “We had to play without Kiyae’ [White] today, and we found out right before half that [White] couldn’t go, so we threw Precious in there and she came up with five rebounds … I think she can help us down the road.”
Otherwise, it was the Coulibaly show for the Tigers as she scored 24 points to make it 14 straight games where she scored in double figures. She also led the team in rebounds with eight. She was able to put Auburn on the board and keep it a close contest.
“She played hard," Starkey said. "I thought she competed well on both ends … When Aicha comes to play, she’s a tough matchup for somebody,."
On the other hand, Florida’s Kiara Smith tallied 19 points, three rebounds and three assists to push Florida to the win.
“That’s why [Smith] is an All-American," Starkey said. "She did a great job of taking the game over. I wish we did a little bit of a better job of taking her left away at the end."
Auburn once again saw minimal production from its bench. The bench only produced nine points on the night as opposed to Florida’s 29 points off the bench, including their second-leading scorer, Alberte Rimdal with 14.
“It’s tough because my bench isn’t deep, so I have to pick and choose times to get [the starters] a break,” Harris said.
Auburn led in free throw percentage 41% to 38%, rebounding 37-36 and tied with Florida with 11 points off turnovers each. However, Florida took better advantage of getting to the free throw line, shooting 87% from the stripe compared to Auburn’s 65%. The Gators also hauled in some key offensive rebounds and turned those into easy second-chance points.
In the end, Auburn put up a hard fight and pushed Florida to the edge, but the Tigers failed to maintain momentum when two of their star players went to the bench late in the game. The Gators ended the game on an 8-0 run to seal the win at home.
The nail-biter loss feels like deja vu for Auburn. This is the fifth Auburn loss this season in which the game was within a single possession with under a minute left.
“We can look at all three of our losses on the road and we’re literally four plays away from winning all of them, but there were segments in that game where we weren’t locked in and we didn’t give maximum effort,” Starkey said.
The Gators improve to 12-5 and continue to build momentum in two straight hard-fought wins.
Auburn continues its search for an SEC win when it ventures to College Station to face the Texas A&M Aggies on Sunday at 4 p.m. CST.
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