March 23, 2009
Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 
PISCATAWAY, N.J. - The Auburn women's basketball team's magical season came to close Monday as the Tigers fell to Rutgers, 80-52, at the Louis Brown Athletic Center in NCAA Second Round action. Auburn, which had its best season in 20 years, winning the SEC regular season title, finished with a 30-4 record.
Southeastern Conference player of the year DeWanna Bonner led Auburn with 17 points and nine rebounds. Bonner broke Auburn's single-season scoring record at the 6:50 mark of the first half, breaking Carolyn Jones previous record of 703 points in 1989-90. Bonner finished the season with 715 points.
Field goal shooting was the difference as Rutgers hit 54 percent of their shots, while Auburn managed just 28 percent field goal shooting. The Scarlet Knights also took advantage of 24 free throw attempts to the Tigers' 12.
"I thought Rutgers was outstanding today," Auburn head coach Nell Fortner said. "That was the best basketball we have seen them play in all the games that we watched in scouting them. They were outstanding."
Rutgers jumped to a quick 9-0 lead and controlled the first half, leading by as many as 20 points twice. RU took a 43-28 advantage to the locker room at halftime, in large part to shooting 50 percent in the first 20 minutes, while the Tigers hit on 32 percent of their shots.
"They came out at us very hard and it got us back on our heels a little bit, messed with our confidence a little and it took us a while to get going offensively," Fortner said. "But, the bottom line is that you have to make stops and I thought there were opportunities for us to, but they got some easy baskets on some put-backs early. It just messes with your confidence. It was a tough beginning for us, we had to crawl out of a hole early and it got to be too big."
Auburn, used a 13-3 run over the final two minutes of the first half and first 4:31 of the second to trim a once 20-point deficit to 10 points, 46-36, on an Alli Smalley jumper with 15:27 left. On their next possession, the Tigers had a chance cut the lead to single digits, however were unable to capitalize.
"I'm proud of how my kids fought," Fortner said. "The kids fought hard to the end and they believed to the end. That is a fun bunch of kids to coach."
Rutgers went on a 14-4 run over the next 6:23 to take a 20-point lead, 60-40, with 9:04 remaining and never let the lead slip below 20 points the rest of the game.
Senior point guard Whitney Boddie joined Bonner in double figures with 10 points and three assists. Sherell Hobbs added eight points and nine boards.
Rutgers was led by Epiphanny Prince who had a game-high 27 points on 10-of-22 shooting, while Kia Vaughn had 15 points and 11 rebounds. Brittany Ray and Heather Zurich had 12 points apiece.
The game was the final contest in the Auburn careers of Bonner, Boddie, Hobbs and Trevesha Jackson.
"They (Auburn seniors) had an outstanding career at Auburn, I'm so proud of them for that," Fortner said. "They put Auburn women's basketball back on the map in a national scene and that was something that is big for our program and we will continue to feed off of that and build this program."
Rutgers (21-12) advances to Oklahoma City and the Sweet 16 where it will face Purdue on Sunday, March 29 at the Ford Center.