Auburn suffered its fifth straight loss of the season Thursday night after a 75-38 defeat against No. 1 South Carolina.
The 38 points were Auburn’s season-low in points scored.
For the Gamecocks, it marked 12 wins in a row for a team that is quickly separating itself from the rest of the country as the nation’s top team. The dominant win was South Carolina’s third win over SEC opponents by 30 or more points.
"We have to battle every possession," said Auburn head coach Johnnie Harris. "I thought we got our heads down, we took some bad shots. We have to follow the game plan. We took some quick shots that were not in our plan, then we took some bad shots. We have very little room for error, and we made a lot of those errors tonight."
Auburn fell in a hole quickly after star sophomore Aicha Coulibaly exited the game due to injury and starting forward Precious Johnson was benched after picking up three fouls in three minutes. Coulibaly later returned to the game, but she could never find a rhythm offensively.
With the team’s star player struggling, Harris needed someone else on her squad to step up, but that did not happen as the entire team was cold throughout the first and second quarters.
Along with the sluggish start offensively, Auburn gave up too many easy baskets defensively. At halftime, South Carolina already had 13 offensive rebounds with eight of those coming in the first quarter.
The Gamecocks turned those rebounds into points with 12 second chance points at halftime. South Carolina had 20 points in the paint alone while Auburn only had 21 points total through the first two quarters.
During the first half, Auburn had no answer stopping junior guard Zia Cooke. Cooke had already exceeded her season average of 11.5 points per game with 12 points in the first half. Cooke finished the game with 20 points.
At halftime, South Carolina had connected on four 3-pointers while Auburn only had one – which came from Coulibaly.
When Auburn has struggled from beyond the 3-point line, it has typically tried to get to the free-throw line. But at halftime, the Tigers had only one visit to the line where they missed both free throws.
The Tigers were hoping to find their offense at the start of the second half and make a comeback like they have many times this season. But tonight, against a team as good as South Carolina, Auburn could not find any magic.
South Carolina opened the half with an 11-0 run to grow the lead to 29. Auburn missed its first nine shots of the third quarter as fatigue began to increase.
With fatigue setting in, South Carolina continued to dominate the offensive glass – grabbing five offensive rebounds within the first seven minutes of the third quarter.
Aliyah Boston, who has been one of the SEC’s best players this season, quickly accounted for a double-double early in the third quarter. In just 20 minutes played, Boston had 10 points and 12 rebounds. Boston's performance brought her consecutive double-double streak to 18 – one shy of the SEC record.
Without a single player scoring in double figures, Auburn was fighting an uphill battle the entire game. Though Auburn finished with just seven turnovers, the Tigers shot 18-for-62 from the field with one 3-pointer and one made free-throw.
South Carolina finished the game with 24 offensive rebounds and won the rebounding margin by 37.
Coulibaly was the Tigers’ leading scorer with nine points but shot 4-for-18 from the field. Honesty Scott-Grayson added eight more points while shooting 4-for-14.
Auburn returns home on Sunday, Feb. 20, to play the Georgia Bulldogs. The game will begin at 11 a.m. CST and be broadcast on SEC Network.
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Jacob is a sophomore from Leeds, Alabama. This is his second year with The Auburn Plainsman.
Twitter: @JacobWaters_
