Women's basketball unable to hold off comeback by No. 10 South Carolina
The Auburn women's basketball team was handed its second Southeastern Conference loss of the season Sunday, a 72-66 defeat at the hands of the No. 10 South Carolina Gamecocks. "We had chances and opportunities," said Auburn head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy. "We didn't do everything on every single possession to win the basketball game." Auburn jumped out early, taking a 9-2 lead, and the Tigers led by as many as 12 in the first half. But South Carolina came storming back to tie it at 39 at the break. "South Carolina is a good team," Williams-Flournoy said. "They're the number 10 team in the country for a reason. They're not just gonna stay down." Auburn shot decently against the SEC's No. 2 scoring defense in the first half, going 12-of-27 from the field. In the second half, however, the Tigers went just 11-of-31 and were outscored 33-27 in the game's final 20 minutes. "They just weren't dropping," Williams-Flournoy said. "We had good looks." Of South Carolina's 72 points, 23 of them came from free throws. "That's a lot of points," Williams-Fluornoy said. "We out rebounded them, we turned them over 20 times, the difference is at the free-throw line." Senior forward Tyrese Tanner led the Tigers with 16 points, but got into foul trouble and played only 23 minutes. "I try not to get in foul trouble," Tanner said. "I don't know what's wrong with me. It happens every game. I'm trying to work on it." Tanner shared Williams-Fluornoy's frustration on the way the Tigers finished. "We should have won," Tanner said. "In the first half, we proved we could beat them. In the second half, we didn't follow through." For South Carolina, sophomore guard Tiffany Mitchell led the way with 18 points, while freshman center Alaina Coates had 14, all in the first half. Both said they knew to stay calm when Auburn jumped out early. "We are not known to freak out," Coates said. "We know what to do and we know how to handle situations like that." For the Tigers, this is only their second loss of the season inside Auburn Arena. "They play extremely well at home," said South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley. "We just had to keep our heads up and stay calm. We just had to wait until our run." The Tigers dropped to 10-6 overall on the season and 1-2 in SEC play with the loss. In their next game, Auburn will travel to Tuscaloosa on Thursday to take on Alabama before returning home next Sunday to face off against the No. 9 ranked Kentucky Wildcats.