Auburn women find plenty of help in season-opening win

AUBURN, Ala. -- Auburn coach Terri Williams-Flournoy knows exactly how many players it will take to replace Tyrese Tanner this season.

"I've said it will take everyone, and it will."

The Auburn women's basketball team took a step toward replacing last year's leading scorer in its season-opener Friday night, beating Troy 71-54 behind four plays scoring in double-figures, including a double-double from Tanner's sister, Tra'Cee, who came through with 16 points and 10 rebounds.

"For us being so young, it was good to get the first game out of the way, get the jitters out of the away," said Williams-Flournoy.

Auburn mixed four returning starters with a lot of freshman for the double-digit scorers and a 51-41 rebounding edge. But Williams-Flournoy was talking, as usual, about her team's defensive play after holding Troy to 26.6 percent shooting from the floor.

"I thought we did a good a job on the defensive end," she said. "We had a lot of freshmen out there."

The defense, said Tra'Cee Tanner, set up everything, especially when the Tigers went on a run late in the first half. By the time the players were in the halftime locker room, defense was the topic of the game.

"We were talking to each other: 'We see what it does for us. We've got to get a stop, we've got to get a stop,'" Tanner said.

Tanner was solid, hitting six of her seven shots, grabbing 10 rebounds, while throwing in two assists, a block and a steal.

Still, Williams-Flournoy would have liked a few more shots from Tanner, but mainly, "I was really impressed more with her defensive rebounding than anything else."

Winning the rebounding battle was a top priority to slow down Troy's fast offense.

"I feel like we definitely followed our game plan: Keep them off the board," Tanner said.

Katie Frerking, who scored 10 and had nine rebounds, knew where it mattered.

"We made one of our keys in the game rebounding. It's always huge when you can have multiple people go to the boards," she said.

Joining Tanner and Frerking in double-digit scoring were Khady Dieng, who scored 13; and Hasina Muhammad, who scored 10.

Auburn returns to action at 6 p.m. Monday against Grambling State in Auburn Arena.

Charles Goldberg is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @AUGoldMine