STARKVILLE, Miss. – The Auburn women’s basketball team looks to build on their first conference win when they take on Mississippi State Thursday night at Humphrey Coliseum. Game time is set for 6:30 p.m. CT.
The Tigers have been in Starkville since Tuesday afternoon, leaving the Auburn area just hours before winter weather moved in. The team practiced at The Hump Tuesday and Wednesday.
Auburn (10-9, 1-5 SEC) looks to keep the momentum going from its 75-60 home win over Missouri Sunday that saw four players score in double-figures. Mississippi State (15-5, 2-4) seeks to bounce back from a rivalry loss to Ole Miss at home Sunday.
ON THE AIR
›› Brit Bowen will have the radio call on ESPN 106.7 FM beginning at 6:15 p.m. CT. The broadcast can also be heard on AuburnTigers.com and the Auburn Athletics app.
›› The game can be seen on SEC Network + with Bart Gregory and Brittany Lange calling the action.
LAST TIME OUT
›› Beating Missouri at its own long-range game, Auburn made three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to win the battle of the Tigers 75-60 Sunday at Neville Arena, Auburn’s first SEC victory.
›› Leading 36-23 at the half, Auburn opened the third quarter with a 6-0 run that gave the home team a 19-point lead before Missouri (11-10, 0-6) answered with a 12-0 run to get within seven.
›› Auburn went more than eight minutes without a field goal before Yuting Deng beat the shot clock with a baseline fadeaway jumper that helped the Tigers take a 12-point lead to the fourth quarter.
›› Deng, Taylen Collins and Celia Sumbane shared Auburn’s scoring honors with 13 points each. Gaston went 5-for-5 from the floor and added 11 points. Sumbane recorded her first career double-double, grabbing a career-best 11 rebounds to help Auburn outrebound Missouri 36-30.
AN AUBURN WIN WOULD...
›› Be Auburn’s first in Starkville since 2014, snapping a six-game skid at the Hump.
›› Be Auburn’s second straight win over Mississsippi State after losing 11 in a row.
›› Give the Tigers their first SEC road win of the year.
SERIES HISTORY VS. MISSISSIPPI STATE
›› Auburn is 36-26 all-time against Mississippi State, but the Bulldogs have controlled the series over the last 10 years, winning 11 of the last 12. Auburn snapped the skid on Senior Night at home last season.
LAST MEETING: Feb. 29, 2024, in Auburn
Auburn 77, Mississippi State 60
›› In a storybook closing chapter to a spectacular career, Honesty Scott-Grayson scored a career-high 32 points in her Neville Arena finale to lead Auburn to a 77-60 wire-to-wire win over Mississippi State on Senior Night.
›› Scott-Grayson tied her career high of 31 on a layup with 1:25 to play, drawing a foul and making the free throw to tie Blanche Alverson’s Neville Arena record of 32 points by an Auburn player, set in 2013.
›› Auburn turned up the heat down the stretch, forcing six turnovers in the quarter to secure the victory. The Tigers forced 17 turnovers in the game while committing only six, leading to a 25-7 advantage in points off turnovers.
SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS
›› Mississippi State is 15-5 overall, 2-4 in SEC play. Like Auburn, the Bulldogs have faced an early gauntlet in league play with four of their six games against top-25 competition.
›› State averages 76.9 points per game while holding opponents to 60.7. The Bulldogs are top-20 nationally in field goal percentage (18th - 47.3%) and rebound margin (16th - +9.3).
›› Jerkalia Jordan leads three players in double-figures with 15.8 points per game. Madina Okot leads the SEC and is second nationally in field goal percentage at 68.7%.
SCOUTING AUBURN
›› Auburn is 10-9 overall, 1-5 in SEC play. The Tigers have faced four top-25 opponents in their first five SEC games, but are in the midst of three straight against unranked foes.
›› Auburn has held 16 of 18 Division I opponents below their season scoring average. Over those 18 games, opponents are being held 10.10points below their season average, including 4 of 6 SEC opponents.
›› Graduate student DeYona Gaston is the nation’s ninth-leading scorer and third in the SEC. She leads the Tigers with 21.3 points and 7.7 rebounds per game, ranking in the SEC’s top 10 in both categories. She set a Neville Arena record for an Auburn player with 36 points in the win over VUL, then nearly matched that with 35 points vs. Alabama State. She has five double-doubles so far this season, including a 29-point, 12-rebound performance vs. Norfolk State on Dec. 29. For her efforts against ULL (29 points)and Alabama State, she was named SEC Player of the Week. Gaston also hit a corner 3-pointer with 1.6 seconds left to beat Northern Iowa on Nov. 28; it was just the second 3-pointer of her five-year collegiate career. She added 30 points in the Jan. 2 game vs. Ole Miss, going 14-for-17 at the free throw line. Her 14 made free throws and 17 attempts both tied Auburn program records.
›› Sophomore Taliah Scott, a transfer from Arkansas, made a splash in her Auburn debut, tying the program record for single-game 3-pointers with eight in the Tigers’ win over Little Rock Nov. 14. She scored 26 points in the game along with a career-high 9 rebounds. She followed that up with a 28-point night at Oregon where she knocked down seven 3-pointers. She has missed the last 14 games with an injury suffered at Cal on Nov. 22.
›› Graduate student Taylen Collins averages 8.8 points and 5.5 rebounds so far this season. She recorded her first double-double of the season with 15 points and 10 rebounds in the win over UAB Dec. 8. Collins hit double-digit scoring twice at the Paradise Jam and had 10 rebounds in the win over Pitt, then scored a then-season high 14 in the win at Virginia. She missed two recent games (Alabama State-illness, Norfolk State-injury) but returned to the lineup vs. Ole Miss.
›› Senior Mar’Shaun Bostic has been the Tigers’ starting point guard most of the season, currently ranking fifth in the SEC with 4.9 assists per game. She’s had five or more assists in 12 of 19 games. Her best game so far this season came at Kentucky on Jan. 12 when she scored a season-high 18 points along with 7 assists, then she matched that with another 18-point, 6-assist, 5-steal performance vs. Texas on Jan. 16. One of the fastest players and top defenders in the SEC, she led the Tigers with 1.6 steals per game in 2023-24 and currently leads the team with 2.0 steals per game this year (8th SEC).
›› Senior Celia Sumbane scored a career-high 19 points with 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals vs. VUL. She was then named to the Paradise Jam all-tournament team after averaging 10.2 points in the tournament, including 16 in the final game vs. Kansas. She started the first 18 games, then recorded her first career double-double off the bench with 13 points and 11 rebounds vs. Missouri on Jan. 19.
›› Sophomore Audia Young opened the season with a bang, scoring a career-high 11 points on 3-4 3FG along with four steals vs. SIU. She then set another career high vs. VUL with 18 points, 4 assists and 5 steals. She hit double-digits a third time with 11 points in the win over Pitt, which included three 3-pointers. Young set a new career high at LSU with 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting, including 4-of-5 from 3-point range.
›› True freshmen Jordan Hunter and Syriah Daniels - two of the top high school players in Alabama a year ago - saw their first collegiate action vs. SIU. Hunter had 6 assists and 4 rebounds off the bench in the opener, then went 7-for-7 from the field for 15 points along with 6 assists vs. VUL. Daniels had 12 points and 4 steals in the VUL win, then scored a career-high 14 points in her first career start to help the Tigers come from behind to beat UAB Dec. 8.
›› Junior Oyindamola Akinbolawa has made 10 starts in the post, averaging 4.1 points and 4.3 rebounds per game. She played her best career game vs. Northern Iowa at the Paradise Jam, finishing with 7 points and 10 rebounds, including her first career 3-pointer. She then scored a career-high 10 points at UL-Lafayette Dec. 18 and just missed her first career double-double with nine rebounds.
›› Sophomore Yakiya Milton returned from injury Dec. 21 vs. Alabama State with six points and six rebounds in the Tigers’ win. She then moved into the starting lineup vs. Norfolk State.
›› Freshmen Yuting Deng and Julia Geis have joined the program for the spring semester. Deng signed in November, arrived from China on Jan. 11, and played for the first time against Texas. She then shared the team lead with 13 points in the win over Missouri Jan. 19. Geis joined the program in late December as a walk-on and has dressed for the last five games.
UP NEXT
›› Auburn closes out January at home Sunday afternoon when the Tigers host the Florida Gators. Game time is 2 p.m. at Neville Arena; it’s the annual We Back Pat game for Alzheimer’s awareness.