Sophomore guard Taliah Scott made her debut for Auburn women’s basketball on Thursday night, leading the Tigers to an 82-48 win over the Little Rock Trojans inside of Neville Arena.
After being held out of the first two matchups of the season for the Tigers due to injury, Scott made an instant impact scoring 26 points, while also adding two assists and nine rebounds. Scott did most of her damage from behind-the-arc, shooting 8-for-14 from three and 9-for-18 from the field.
Scott was ready to play, scoring 26 points for the Tigers during the Auburn vs Little Rock game on Nov. 14, 2024.
“She was ready to play,” said Auburn head coach Johnnie Harris. “I mean, that kid is hungry, she’s coachable. I just saw her getting into her groove, what you saw is exactly who she is.”
Scott transferred to Auburn after her freshman season at Arkansas where she averaged 22.1 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game and was named to the All-SEC Freshman Team.
Scott’s electrifying night from three with eight made 3-pointers make her the record holder for 3-pointers made in an Auburn women’s basketball single game — and only one shy of the national women's college basketball record of nine.
“I felt like I got in a rhythm,” Scott said. “I had teammates finding me in the open spots. Most of my shots were catch and shoots right? So that’s credit to my teammates for getting me the ball in positions where I could be successful.”
Scott’s success wasn’t only on the offensive end as she totaled three steals in her 33 minutes on the court. Auburn found the most success on both ends when Scott was on the court, leading the team in plus/minus with 39.
“One of (Scott’s) goals is to be better defensively, and then another goal is to be more consistent on the offensive end, so be efficient,” Harris said. “And I thought she was, I mean you’ll take 50% any night, so I thought she did what she needed to do.”
Scott wasted no time scoring her first points as a Tiger — drilling a 3-pointer with 9:09 left in the first quarter. That first quarter also included two more makes from deep for Scott, with her other five threes coming later in the second half.
“It made me feel like I was already in rhythm,” Scott said on the feeling after making her first three. “Making that first one, it kind of calmed me down too, because coming back, not playing a game for four, five, six months your adrenaline is high. So making that first one kind of calmed me down, I’m like okay, I can relax, I got this.”
After a 3-0 start to the season for Auburn, Scott and the Tigers will prepare for their first high-major matchup of the season as they travel to face No. 25 Oregon inside of Matthew Knight Arena next Wednesday, Nov. 20.
“We have to be tough as a team in order to beat (Oregon),” Scott said. “We have to rely on our defense. Scoring is not just going to beat them because they can score too, we have to be able to stop somebody.”
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Marshall is a junior majoring in Journalism. He joined the Plainsman in the fall of 2024.
You can follow him on X (Twitter) at @marshalldow02
