The Auburn Tigers picked up their first conference road win on Sunday afternoon, defeating Missouri 70-59 and improving to 15-8 (4-6 SEC) on the season.
Graduate student Honesty Scott-Grayson led the Tigers with 24 points, continuing her streak of scoring 15 or more points in every SEC matchup this season. The 5-foot-9 guard averages 17.4 points per game, putting her at seventh in the SEC in points per game.
Scott-Grayson has also scored 20 or more points in four consecutive games.
Auburn outscored Missouri in every quarter except for the third and did not trail the entire contest. Despite a third quarter where Mizzou outscored the Tigers 27-20 and tied the game at 48-48, Auburn weathered the run and surged ahead with an early fourth quarter lead that pushed them to victory.
“We came out and played the way we wanted to play,” said Auburn head coach Johnnie Harris. “We started out making it tough for (Missouri) to get all those 3s off. They ended up getting some of those off in the third quarter; a lot of that was in transition."
Missouri Tiger Abby Schraeke sank a 3-pointer– Mizzou’s fifth of the third quarter– to tie the contest up at 48-48. Auburn, however, with the help of five straight points from Scott-Grayson, put the Tigers back in the lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Auburn began the final period on a 10-0 run started by a made 3-pointer from McKenna Eddings, and the Tigers would lead for the rest of the game by double digits. Eddings finished the day with nine points, going 3-for-8 from beyond the arc.
“I loved the way my team fought back in the fourth quarter,” Harris said. “We made them guard us, and we kind of worked the ball a little bit more instead of taking quick shots. We got some really good looks and were able to knock them down, and we were able to get to the free-throw line.”
Defensively, Auburn held Missouri to 20-for-50 (40%) from the field while forcing 22 turnovers and grabbing nine steals. The Tigers put up 24 points off of turnovers and totaled 22 defensive rebounds.
JaMya Mingo-Young led Auburn with 11 rebounds that contributed to her second double-double of the season. Mingo-Young scored 10 points and also led the Tigers with five assists and two steals.
Auburn finished the contest shooting 42.6% from the field, 32.1% from three and producing 21 points off the bench.
The Tigers are back in Neville Arena on Thursday, Feb. 16 where they face the Kentucky Wildcats. Tipoff is at 6 p.m. CST and will be televised on the SEC Network.
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Grace Heim is a junior from Enterprise, Alabama, majoring in English Literature. She started with The Plainsman in January 2023.
