No. 25 Ole Miss entered Thursday afternoon’s matchup against Auburn with the top-ranked scoring defense in the country allowing just 46.7 points-per-game. The injured Tigers experienced a full dose of the Rebels’ defense in a 85-58 loss in the SEC opener – marking Auburn’s seventh straight loss in the conference opener.
“We've had a lot of adversities. We have a lot of people out. They were able to come back and play the game. But I thought we played like we practiced. We've been having to walk through and that's not who we are as a basketball team,” Auburn head coach Johnnie Harris said. “But I'm just really disappointed in our turnovers. 29 turnovers and they're just poor decision making.”
The Rebels turned Auburn over 29 times – a season high for the Tigers – creating 37 Ole Miss points. 29 turnovers is the most for Auburn since a loss to Alabama in 2015 when the Tigers record 28.
“We have to stick with our plan. Those unforced turnover from bad decisions. And I thought we made those,” Harris said. “We'll go back and show them. And we just have to get better, and we have to eliminate the unforced turnover. And they're a good defensive team. They force sometimes, but we had a lot of unforced turnovers that was a result of bad decisions.”
It was a tough offensive start for Auburn, making just eight shots in the first half and totaling just 20 points with 13 turnovers. The Tigers finished shooting 49%, 19-for-39, but failed to make a 3-pointer for the first time since a loss at Alabama in 2022.
All four of the Tigers’ guards combined for 17 points with Mar-Shaun Bostic leading the way with 11 points shooting 4-for-7 from the field. The other three guards made three combined shots.
“We gotta get more out of our guard play,” Harris said. “Celia is battling injuries. She’s been really good all year long. And it's really hard for her right now. It's hard for her to move right now. She played 16 minutes. She didn't take a shot. And that's very un-Celia like, so just got to get some people back healthy.”
Reigning SEC player of the week DeYona Gaston led the Tigers 30 points, her fifth straight perfomrace with 20-or-more points, shooting 8-for-15 from the field in 36 minutes of action. Thursday night’s performace marked Gaston’s third 30 plus point game this season.
“She's just a tough matchup. She's coachable. She'll do whatever we ask her to do. And you know, I just love coaching her. We have to get her some help,” Harris said of Gaston. “She's going to continue to play the way she's playing, because the way she approaches the game, and she approaches the game as a pro.”
Gaston was also able to knock down 14 of her 17 shots from the charity stripe with Auburn finishing the evening 20-for-26 from the free throw line.
“We tried to do our best, but obviously that wasn't good enough as far as her individual performance. But for us, it's going to take more than one person,” Ole Miss head coach
Yolett McPhee-McCuin said of Gaston. “She's a big but not really. She has guard like skills, and she has really good touch around the rim, even when they were warming up and she walked by me, she's longer than I expected her to be.”
Head coach Johnnie Harris also noted that junior guard Kaitlyn Duhon, who played 31 games last season and saw action in the first four contests this fall, is no longer with the program.
Up next in SEC play, Auburn will travel to down to Baton Rouge, LA to face No. 6 LSU on Sunday, Jan. 5 at 3 p.m. CST on the SEC Network in the Tigers second-straight game agasint a top-25 opponent.
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Patrick is a junior from Auburn, Alabama, double majoring in journalism and marketing. He started with The Plainsman in the fall of 2022.
You can follow him on X (Twitter) at @patrickabingham
