Feb. 7, 2008
Gainesville, Fla. -- The Auburn Tigers were unable to complete a late second-half comeback as the Florida Gators held on for a 73-67 victory Thursday night at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center in Gainsville.
Auburn dropped to 15-7 overall and 3-4 in the Southeastern Conference with the loss. Florida improved to 15-8 overall and 4-4 in the SEC.
"We had some good looks at it, but we couldn't pull out," Auburn head coach Nell Fortner said. "DeWanna Bonner played well, but no one was able to help her out."
Bonner led the Tigers with 30 points, 20 of which came in the second half. Bonner also finished the game with nine rebounds and two steals. Sherell Hobbs, Auburn's leading scorer in SEC play entering the game, was held to only 10 points.
The Gators were led by Jennifer Mosser's 17 points and Sha Brooks' 16 points.
The Tigers and Gators battled back and forth the entire first half, neither team taking more than a five point lead.
Auburn led for most of the first half, but with 17 seconds left in the half Florida's Aneika Henry hit an open layup to give the Gators a 27-26 lead at the intermission.
Florida picked up where they left off in the first half, taking an early 10 point lead to start the second half.
The Tigers' began to rally at the 12 minute mark and were able to cut Florida's lead to five. But, the Gators quickly regained the momentum and pushed their lead to 13 with eight minutes left to play.
Auburn, however, mounted another rally on the strength of Bonner's second-half play. Twice Bonner cut the Florida lead to three points with less than two minutes remaining in the game. Her two free throws cut the Gator lead to 66-63 at the 1:41 mark and her layup with 48 seconds remaining made it a 68-65 deficit.
The Gators would hit five of six free throws in the remaining seconds to seal the victory.
Auburn returns to action Sunday when then the Tigers travel to Fayetteville, Arkansas. The Tigers battle the Razorbacks at 2 p.m. CT.
The Tigers return to Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum to take on in-state rival Alabama on Thursday Feb. 14.