With a dominant win over the Tulane Green Wave, the Auburn Tigers women’s basketball team advanced to the second round of the WNIT. The Tigers defeated the Green Wave 73-58 at Neville Arena Friday night and will face the Clemson Tigers in the next round of the WNIT.
It is the Tigers first postseason win under head coach Johnnie Harris. Turnovers and defense were the difference maker in the game, with Auburn coming out on top. The Tigers held Tulane to six 3-pointers. Tulane turned the ball over 22 times, and Auburn scored 22 points off of the Green Waves’ turnovers.
“Our game plan was to come out and impose our will, and I felt like our team did that. They played extremely hard and made it difficult for (Tulane) to get into their offense,” Harris said. “We were scoring off of turnovers that we caused, and we caused 11 turnovers in the first half.”
Honesty Scott-Grayson started the game with a made three to give the Tigers a 3-0 lead which was quickly followed by a 3-pointer from Tulane’s Dynah Jones to tie the game at 3-3. Auburn bounced back, and a made layup by Kharyssa Richardson gave the Tigers back the lead, a lead they would hold until the final buzzer. At the end of the first quarter, the Tigers led the Green Wave 21-11, largely due to the performances of both Scott-Grayson and Richardson.
Richardson shot 4-for-5 in the first quarter and finished the game with 16 points. Scott-Grayson led the Tigers in scoring with 18 points. She went 3-for-4 from beyond the arc and scored three of Auburn’s four made 3-pointers.
“To be in this position, I feel like we have no choice but to give it our all and get the job done,” Scott-Grayson said.
At the half, the Tigers led Tulane 44-29, shooting 50% from the field and going 3-for-7 from behind the three-point line. The Tigers ended the first half with seven steals and only one turnover. Sixteen of the Tigers’ 44 first-half points came from steals and turnovers by the Green Wave.
“When we got a steal, we took off,” Harris said. “We wanted to score, and we played transition offense and made good decisions. I was really comfortable with them taking shots.”
The Tigers did not let their lead slip in the second half. Despite being outscored 16-11 in the third quarter, Auburn maintained its lead heading into the final quarter of the game. At the end of the third quarter, the Tigers led the Green Wave 55-45.
The third quarter ended with a three-minute scoring drought, and the drought was ended by two made free throws from Auburn’s Mar’shaun Baustic early in the fourth quarter. Auburn expanded its lead in the fourth quarter, shooting 7-for-13 from inside the paint and one-for-five from three. The Tigers outscored the Green Wave 18-13 in the final quarter, holding them to eleven attempted shots from the field. Tulane did not score for the final two minutes of the game as Auburn secured its first postseason win under Harris.
The Auburn Tigers will travel to face Clemson in the second round of the WNIT. The game will begin at 6 p.m. CST on Monday.
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Grace Heim is a junior from Enterprise, Alabama, majoring in English Literature. She started with The Plainsman in January 2023.
