Nov. 22, 2010
TAMPA - Playing on the road for the first time this season, the Auburn women's basketball team (1-3) struggled from the field, shooting 29 percent, as South Florida (3-2) pulled out the 67-49 win. Junior Chantel Hilliard scored 16 points off the bench to lead the Tigers in the loss.
South Florida scored 22 of the first 25 points of the game, taking a 22-3 lead with 12:01 to go in the first half. The Tigers were able to get back on their feet, out-scoring USF 21-14 during the rest of the period to cut the Bull lead to 12 at halftime, 36-24.
"It was a pretty deep hole to get in to and we had to expend a lot of energy to get out of it," said Auburn head coach Nell Fortner. "In the second half, we did some nice things, but they were always there to hit a big shot and extend it back out."
Auburn came out of the locker room on a mission, scoring the first eight points, four from Hilliard, to cut the lead to four in the first three minutes of the second half, forcing USF to call at timeout at the 17:23 mark. That would be as close as the Tigers would come, though, as the Bulls came out of the timeout scoring the next four points to put its lead back to eight.
"We came out and played with a lot of energy, knocked some shots down and we were back in it," said Fortner. "But, it was a big deficit to come back from."
Led by 10 second-half points each from Hilliard and senior Jordan Greenleaf, Auburn was able to keep the South Florida lead in single digits for most of the remainder of the half.
A Hilliard layup cut the lead to seven with 7:58 to play, but that is as close as Auburn would get in the final minutes as USF's Andrea Smith answered with a 3-pointer, one of her eight on the night, to build the lead back to 10 with 6:47 to go.
Smiths 3-pointer opened up a 16-5 USF run to finish the game, building the lead back to as much as 19 points as the Bulls cruised to the 67-49 win.
Auburn struggled to find its shot in the game, shooting 18-of-62 from the field for 29 percent and 2-of-13 from 3-point range for 15.4 percent.
"I thought we were getting good looks, they just did not drop," said Fortner. "It is disappointing, but that is the game of basketball. We just have to get back up and get ready to go at it again."
Someone who did not have trouble finding their shot was USF's Andrea Smith as she hit 12 of her 22 shots, 8-of-13 from 3-point land, to score a career-high 33 points to lead South Florida. She also added five rebounds and a pair of assists.
"She (Smith) was unreal, she was quite impressive, for sure," said Fortner. "We did not have an answer for her defensively, and we did not have an answer for her offensively to counter on the other end."
Along with her 13 points, Greenleaf led the Tigers with 10 rebounds, notching her second double-double of the season. She also added a blocked shot and a steal. Blanche Alverson scored eight points while Hilliard coupled seven rebounds with her team-high 16 points.
Smith led USF with 33 points, followed by Daleishe Carn with 10. Porche Grant scored eight points and led the team in rebounding with seven.
The Bulls shot 53.1 percent (26-of-49) from the field and 52.6 percent (10-of-19) from 3-point range. Auburn won the battle on the boards, 39-35, including 22 offensive rebounds that turned into 19 second-chance points.
Auburn will stay on the road, traveling to Freeport, Bahamas for the 2010 Junkanoo Jam. The Tigers will open the tournament at 12 p.m. CT, Friday against Sacred Heart.
Follow Auburn women's basketball on Twitter at twitter.com/AuburnWBB.