Dec. 7, 2008
LYNCHBURG, Va. - Auburn held Liberty to 20 points in the second half and forced 23 Flame turnovers in the game was the 14th-ranked Tigers came from behind for a 64-53 win at Liberty Sunday afternoon. With the win, Auburn improves to 10-0 for just the ninth time in the program's history while Liberty drops to 1-6.
Senior Sherell Hobbs scored 15 points in the second-half comeback to lead the Tigers with 20 points. She led a pack of three Tigers in double figures as DeWanna Bonner tallied 17 and Alli Smalley chipped in 11.
Fresh off a triple-double in Friday night's win over Sam Houston State, senior point guard Whitney Boddie flirted with another as she picked up nine points and seven rebounds along with her 10-assist effort.
Senior Moriah Frazee led Liberty with 17 points and seven rebounds while guard Amber Mays tallied 13 points and four steals. Rachel Hammond rounded out the double-digit scorers for the Flames with 10 points and seven rebounds.
"We knew they were going to be tough coming in here and this game challenged us," said Auburn head coach Nell Fortner. "They challenged us in the middle, they are bigger than we were and their energy and presence on the bench was great.
"I was really pleased with how we came back out in the second half and I think a lot of the credit goes to our veterans for not letting the team get their heads down. This was a good win for us against a good team in a tough environment and now we can go home, take some time off and get things done in the classroom."
To counter the Liberty size, Auburn junior KeKe Carrier saw 17 minutes of action in the game and held Frazee to just two points in the second half.
"KeKe's contributions to this game are not going to show up on the stat sheet by her name, but on Liberty's stat sheet showing what they did not get in the game," said Fortner. "KeKe gave us some solid minutes down in the paint today."
Down by a point at the half, the teams traded the lead until Auburn went ahead 43-41 on a Hobbs layup with 10:43 left in the game. From there, Auburn held the Flames scoreless for the next five minutes, building a nine-point lead during that stretch.
The Flames came back and cut the lead to six, but a Hobbs three-pointer with 2:38 remaining sealed the win. From that point, Liberty went to fouling on each possession, sending Auburn to the line 12 times in the final minute and a half. The Tigers would go on to make nine of their attempts for the final 64-53 win.
"This was definitely a tough team, a lot tougher than their record shows. I was happy with how we came together in the second half, made some adjustments and executed our game plan," said Fortner.
In the first half, Liberty slowly built a 23-13 lead, but Auburn used a 15-0 run to take a three-point lead at the 28-23 mark. Liberty bounced back with a 7-0 run to re-take the lead and would go into the locker room with a 33-32 advantage.
Bonner led Auburn with nine points and four rebounds. Boddie also picked up four rebounds with her nine assists.
Frazee led the Flames with 12 points in the opening period while Kylee Beecher added seven rebounds.
After taking 12 days off for final exams, Auburn will return to action at 6:30 p.m. CT, Dec. 19 with the Tigers traveling to Washington, D.C., to take on George Washington. GWU is currently 4-3 on the season and will take on Troy before facing Auburn.