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A spirit that is not afraid

Tigers get revenge on Little Rock

Auburn guard Jakayla Johnson (3) attempts a shot during a matchup against Little Rock in Neville Arena on Nov. 30, 2022.
Auburn guard Jakayla Johnson (3) attempts a shot during a matchup against Little Rock in Neville Arena on Nov. 30, 2022.

Auburn returned home after their Las Vegas tournament to take on Little Rock, earning a firm 70-48 victory. 

The Tigers maintained control the entire game never losing the lead. Romi Levy also made her first start of the season and got her second double-double of the season. 

“Yesterday, I told Coach J, 'I’m going to get a double-double tomorrow',” said Levy. 

Honesty Scott-Grayson had a team high of 20 points. In the Tigers' last game against Indiana, Scott-Grayson put up 22 points and the next game, led the team to a win when she knocked in the final free throw to put them over Colorado State. 

Last year, Auburn took on this team and the outcome was different, but the Tigers have grown enough to earn them the win this year.

Head coach Johnnie Harris fell ill at the last minute, so the team was led by associate head coach Damitria Buchanan. Buchanan found out very late that she would be running the show, but bettered her record to 2-0 despite the sudden change.

“Our grit and determination to go out there and really just not get beat by them again. Nobody wanted that and we wanted to play hard for Coach D and especially Coach J,” Scott-Grayson said.  

In the first quarter, Auburn outscored Little Rock 22-8. The Tigers also only missed one three pointer all quarter. Both teams made all of their free throws. 

In the second quarter the Tigers put up double the amount of team fouls that they did in the first. Little Rock took advantage of this making 58.8% of their free throws, a differential that allow for most of its points during that quarter. 

Auburn’s defense stepped up, blocking many big shots without fouling. They also had 14 fast-break points during the game. 

Going into half time Little Rock had 17 free throw attempts in the second quarter, but in the third quarter, the Tigers didn’t send the Trojans to the line. 

“We had to stop fouling and stop giving up offensive rebounds. I was like were doing a good job guarding them," Buchanan said. "Felt like we were doing a good job executing but those two things, we had to be disciplined and stop putting them at the line."

The third and fourth quarters seemed to follow the same trends in scoring however, Auburn did get out rebounded by Little Rock. 

“Our team was listening to me which I really appreciate, and we were able to execute and pull it out,” Buchanan said.

Coming off a tough week in Las Vegas, this win helped show the team that they are getting back on track. The Tigers had to take on a top-five team and split the results of their two games while in a venue that Indiana head coach Toni Moren has since expressed displeasure about. 

“It really showed that our team is tough, you know that’s what we wanna hang our program on tough, hard-nosed, physical, and aggressive," Buchanan said. "No matter what the circumstances are we are going to preform regardless because we wanna do it for each other, we wanna do it for this program, we wanna do it for Auburn University."

The Tigers take on UCF at home this Saturday Dec. 3 at 2 p.m. CST. 

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Lily Stewart | Operations Editor

Lily has been with The Plainsman for three years and started out as a Sports Writer before becoming the Operations Editor. She graduates in May of 2024 and is from Washington, D.C. 


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