The Tigers changed things up and dressed in pink for their rematch with No. 17 Florida Monday night in Auburn Arena. Despite a late push and a hot shooting night, the Gators' late lead proved to be too much, and the Tigers fell 83-77.
"Just really disappointed in our fouling, and our not boxing out," said head coach Johnnie Harris. “We're not executing down the stretch. We just have to get better, and we need to finish games.”
The game was "Play4Kay night," and the team originally planned to donate $3 to the Kay Vow Cancer Center for every student who attended the game. At halftime, Harris announced that it changed the donation to $5 per student. 209 students attended the game, making it a $1,045 donation. Students were given pink t-shirts and shakers to help raise awareness for breast cancer on Valentine's Day.
“There are 209 students I really appreciate for coming out, and they all had their pink shirts on," Harris said with a smile. "[The donation is] $1,045, so I might be eating noodles for the rest of the week, but I'm happy to do it and raise awareness [for breast cancer]."
Feb. 14, 2022; Auburn, Ala; Students in The Jungle look on as Auburn plays Florida from Auburn Arena.
This was a highly competitive affair early, as the game endured six lead changes, and the score was locked for 2:22 in the first half.
Aicha Coulibaly carried the Tigers through the first quarter with eight of the squad’s 17 first-quarter points. She went 4-for-5 from the field, accounting for half of the Tigers’ made baskets.
The game was very evenly-matched early on, but Auburn found itself with a 17-16 lead after a quarter.
After Florida went on a 6-0 scoring run in the second quarter, Sania Wells, the SEC leader in free throw percentage at 92.5% entering the night, got hot from the stripe. She converted on each of her four attempts to make it a three-point, 39-36 deficit for the Tigers going into halftime.
Wells’ late surge made her the team’s leading scorer midway through, with 10 points. Coulibaly followed with nine, and Honesty Scott-Grayson put up six points and eight rebounds in the opening half.
The Tigers stormed out of the break, with Annie Hughes and Xaria Wiggins hitting consecutive 3-point shots and taking their first lead of the half with 6:40 in the third quarter.
However, the lead shifts didn’t end. The lead changed six additional times in the second half.
Auburn couldn’t miss in the third quarter, and Hughes lead the cause. She lit up the scoreboard, emerging as a candidate for Auburn’s leading score. She started out the second half 3-for-3, pushing her to a perfect 4-for-4, and made both of her shots from 3-point range.
Feb. 14, 2022; Auburn, Ala; Annie Hughes (3) puts up a 3-point shot in a game against Florida from Auburn Arena.
After Florida took another short lead, Jala Jordan flew down the court and hit Auburn’s sixth three of the day. Scott-Grayson then casually deposited another deep ball from the corner on the ensuing possession for the Tigers’ seventh made long ball of the game.
Florida wasn’t done, though. The Gators went on an 8-0 scoring run that lasted nearly three minutes, before an Amoura Graves put-back ended the run as the clock expired in the third quarter.
Florida took a five-point lead into the final quarter of play.
From there, the Gators added seven straight points to make it a 67-55 game. Florida’s 14-point lead with 5:57 left in the game, the biggest of the game for the Gators, proved to be insurmountable.
Despite a late push from Auburn, including an 8-0 run that got it down to a 78-74 Florida lead and a 3-pointer from Hughes to make it a one-possession, three-point difference, Florida hit 5-of-its-6 free throws within the last 15 seconds to seal the win.
Shooting 41% from three, Auburn had one of its best shooting performances of the season. Harris said the success her team had from the floor made her “so proud.” It nearly matched Florida’s field goal percentage, as the Gators shot 44% compared to the Tigers’ 43%.
Several players also had career nights for Auburn.
Scott-Grayson put the team on her back, and brought her team on a late run to give the Gators a scare. She recorded 21 points and 14 rebounds in total for her first double-double of the season. She was another Tiger who found herself in foul trouble, fouling out with 10 seconds left in the game.
“I told her before the game, ‘I need you to go get a bucket,’” said Harris. “She’s very unselfish, but she does a lot for us.”
Feb. 14, 2022; Auburn, Ala; Honesty Scott-Grayson (23) releases a shot in a game against Florida from Auburn Arena.
Annie Hughes also had a night to remember, with 13 points and shooting 3-for-3 from beyond the arch.
Coulibaly, leading the team with an average of 18.4 points per game, finished with 15 points despite only being on the court for 23 minutes due to foul trouble.
“We had some kids step up and knock down some shots. Xaria (Wiggins) hit a big three in there, but we’ve got to play better and finish,” Harris said.
Auburn’s downfall ended up being turnovers. It gave the ball up 20 times, leading to 22 points for Florida.
“We made some shots, it’s just not enough,” said assistant coach Bob Starkey. “That was the frustrating thing is making some shots, but having 20 turnovers sprinkled in there where you can’t get a shot off. We’re not good enough offensively to give away 20 opportunities.”
Florida also established dominance on the glass with 19 second-chance points, as opposed to Auburn’s 14.
“That’s just part of discipline," Harris said. "We’ve been telling them all week, ‘you have to get it with two hands,’ and we made some mistakes that come down to being disciplined or not disciplined."
Florida extends its winning streak to four and improves to 19-6 and 9-3 in conference matchups. The Gators sit at third in the SEC, just a game behind Tennessee and trailing first-place South Carolina by two games.
On the other hand, Auburn falls to 9-14 and 1-11 in SEC play. The Tigers' schedule does not ease up, as it prepares to travel to Columbia to take on top-ranked South Carolina Thursday before returning to Auburn to face No. 21 Georgia.
“They are long, athletic. They can score from every position on the floor, so we’ll have our hands full,” Harris said of South Carolina. “But, we’ll go in there with a game plan, and we’ll go in there and battle.”
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