AUBURN, Ala. – Auburn put together one of its best defensive efforts of the season Sunday to earn a 58-54 victory over No. 25 Missouri on Senior Day at Auburn Arena.
The Tigers (20-7, 8-6 SEC), who dropped their first meeting of the season with Missouri (19-9, 8-6) on Jan. 27, held Missouri to its second-lowest scoring output in SEC play. The victory gives Auburn its first 20-win regular season since 2009 and the second overall 20-win season (including postseason) under head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy.
"I'm so proud of them," Williams-Flournoy said. "As everybody knows, we are not a man-to-man defensive team, but they really got down and played it today.
"We knew we had to mix it up. We mixed up our (press). We were on the ball sometimes. We were off the ball sometimes. We stayed in (man) sometimes. We showed (zone), and went to (man). We really knew that we just had to keep mixing it up."
After Missouri finished the third quarter on a 9-0 run to take a 45-38 lead to the fourth, Auburn held Mizzou scoreless for the first five minutes of the final period with an 11-0 run of their own, regaining the lead at 47-45 on a layup from Thompson. From there, Auburn would never trail again, hitting key free throws in the closing minutes to secure its eighth SEC victory of the season. Auburn outscored Missouri 20-9 in the final period.
"I told them, 'We've worked too hard this week in preparing for Missouri to go out and not give it all in the next 10 minutes,'" Williams-Flournoy said. "I had three timeouts. I said, 'I'll use all the timeouts, just keep playing hard. The bench will come in and get subs. We just had 10 minutes, that's it.' That's exactly what I told them, 'We have 10 minutes to play our heart out.' And that's exactly what they did."
Junior Daisa Alexander led Auburn in scoring for the fourth straight game and the seventh time in SEC play with 19 points. Freshman Erin Howard added a career-high 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting (2-2 3FG), and Unique Thompson and Janiah McKay added nine points each. Thompson led Auburn with eight rebounds and McKay finished with six assists.
Auburn shot 36.2 percent from the field, but at 21-of-58 from the floor took 10 more shots than Missouri (21-48). Auburn also scored 17 points off 19 Missouri turnovers while committing just six turnovers of their own, matching their season low (also against Missouri on Jan. 27).
Auburn led 26-22 at halftime after forcing 12 first-half turnovers by Missouri, converting those into 14 points.
With today's win, Auburn secured its 22nd 20-win season in program history and locked up at least a .500 record in SEC play for the second time in four years.
Auburn's three seniors – Janiah McKay, Erica Sanders and Emari Jones – along with senior manager KK Wiggins were honored in a pregame ceremony. The group has led Auburn to 71 wins in their four years.
"My seniors are special," Williams-Flournoy said. "Especially Janiah and Erica. They've been here with me for all four years. Any seniors that have been here for four years and played in our system, kudos to them because it's tough. Janiah, she works extremely hard. Nobody has beat her in a sprint in four years. Daisa tried, not gonna happen.
"Erica has fought through injuries every year, but just came out every year and kept playing hard. She's our defensive stopper. If you didn't see her defense today then whoa, because she got after it today. She really got after it.
"I can't forget about Emari. I know she got hurt, but she's still leading us, helping them in the locker room, off the court as well. It's really sad, because she was working so hard every single day to have a great season year."
The Tigers will play their final home game of the season Thursday night as they host No. 13 South Carolina. Game time is 6 p.m. CT; tickets are available at AUBTix.com and the Auburn Arena ticket office.