The Auburn women’s basketball squad used smothering defense to dispatch Kentucky, 78-50, on Thursday at Neville Arena.
“I thought our kids came out, we wanted to set the tone, we wanted to throw the first punch. I thought we did that,” said Auburn head coach Johnnie Harris. “We were super aggressive on the defensive end. We were in the passing lanes, pressuring the ball. I thought we made it hard for them to get the things that they want and I thought that set the tone for the ball game.”
The Tigers defense was a force to be reckoned with as they forced 26 turnovers and held the Wildcats well below their season average of 65.4 points per game – Auburn’s defense is holding conference opponents to an average of 11 points below their season scoring average.
The end of the first quarter resulted in an 18-4 lead for the Tigers where they held Kentucky to its lowest amount of first quarter points this season as the Cats went 2-19 from the field and shot 10.5%.
“It’s what we do,” Harris said on the defensive performance. “We expect to do what we did tonight. We expect to get out in the passing lane. We expect to get steals. We expect to be in help and get charges.”
It was much of the same in quarter number two as the Tigers capitalized on 12 turnovers forced and stretched their lead to 21 heading into the locker room.
Kentucky went on a run of its own and brought the Tigers' lead down to just 15 in the third quarter, but the Tigers again stretched their lead to 28 where they would finish the game.
Honesty Scott-Grayson had another stellar night, leading the team in scoring with 22. Scott-Grayson has scored 125 points in her last five outings as she has scored more than 20 points in all of those.
“Just playing my role,” Scott-Grayson said on her recent performance. “Taking those shots, those wide-open shots. Getting my teammates involved. I just go out there not thinking about it too much and let the game come to me.”
Transfer forward Taylen Collins had a night to remember as she recorded a double-double, going for 19 points – a season high – and 11 rebounds.
“I was just finding the little gaps that the defense was giving me. My teammates did a great job of finding me. Especially when they were attacking it kind of left open lanes for me to kind of get the pickup points,” Collins said.
JaMya Mingo-Young and Kaitlyn Duhon both reached double digits as they finished with 10 points each. Mingo-Young also added eight rebounds and a team-high six assists.
With the win, Auburn has improved to 16-8 (5-6 SEC) on the season.
Auburn is right on the grasp of the NCAA Tournament as the Tigers are sitting on the bubble as one of the last four teams in according to ESPN's Bracketology.
“We know we’ve got work to do. We are taking it one game at a time, but we are definitely talking about that,” Harris said.
The Tigers will go for the season sweep against cross-state rival Alabama on Sunday, Feb. 18 at 2 p.m. CST. The game will be televised on SECN+.
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Logan Fowler is a junior from Sumiton, Alabama, majoring in journalism. He joined The Plainsman in Spring 2024.
