March 22, 2008
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PALO ALTO, CALIF. - The Auburn women's basketball season came to a close Saturday as the Tigers, the No. 11 seed in the Greensboro Regional, fell to No. 6 seed George Washington, 66-56, in the first round of the NCAA Division I Tournament at Maples Pavilion.
Auburn, which led by as many as seven points early in the second half, was led by junior DeWanna Bonner who scored 16 points. Alli Smalley, Sherell Hobbs and Trevesha Jackson added 10 points apiece.
Auburn concluded the season with a 20-12 mark, the second consecutive 20-win season under Nell Fortner. George Washington improved to 26-6 and will face either Cal or San Diego in the second round Monday.
"I thought we fought really hard today, we just couldn't really knock down some shots in the second half," Fortner said. "I thought GW was a fine basketball team and they just overpowered us in the second half. I was proud of how hard we played but you have to knock down shots and we just hit a period of time where shots weren't dropping for us and they made a pretty good run at us. Hopefully, this experience will carry over for us next year."
It was the Tigers' first NCAA appearance since 2004 and the first during the Fortner era.
The Tigers took an early 3-0 lead, but trailed by as many as five points in the first half before a Jackson layup with 3:55 in the half gave Auburn a 25-24 lead.
Consecutive baskets by Smalley and Bonner increased the Tigers lead to five, but a Kimberly Beck three pointer with four seconds left cut the Auburn lead to 31-29 at the break.
Auburn opened the second half on a 7-2 run, as Smalley's three-point bucket at 18:00 gave the Tigers their largest lead of the game, 38-31.
The Tigers however, went cold from the field midway through the second half, going 7:41 without a field goal, while seeing a six-point lead evaporate.
GW regained the lead for good at the 8:24 mark on Jessica Adair's baseline jumper, giving the Colonials a 48-46 advantage, closing the game on a 20-10 run.
"They are a very physical defensive team, they're very tough and they had a big post presence inside and I think we were pretty much outmatched inside," Fortner said. "I thought we were trying to do some things to try to affect their post players and we did at times, but in the end I think it wore us out. They do a great job in that matchup zone denying and playing it like a man. I think they're a very good basketball team."
Auburn shot 28.1 percent in the second half, while GW used 13 second-half offensive rebounds to its advantage by scoring 13 second-chance points.
George Washington was led by Adair who finished with a game-high 17 points and 13 rebounds. Antelia Parrish added 15, while Whitney Allen and Sarah-Jo Lawrence each scored 11 points.