AUBURN, Ala. – Career nights from redshirt sophomore Kiyae' White and freshman Lauren Hansen and a pair of late defensive stops led the Auburn women's basketball team to a 66-62 win over St. Joseph's at Auburn Arena Sunday night.
The Tigers (2-2) snapped a two-game skid with their best defensive effort of the season, turning 14 turnovers by St. Joseph's (2-3) into 17 turnovers and limiting the Hawks to just four 3-pointers on 15 attempts.
"I'm very proud of our young ladies," Auburn head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said. "We've been in some close games the last two games that we didn't pull out. They really buckled down, made some stops, scored the basketball and finished the game out with a 'W.'
"We didn't give up 85 points, nor 80, nor 82, nor 89. It's something that we've been talking about. It's something that we've been working on as well. It was good for them to see it. We switched up a little bit. The starting lineup isn't conducive to our 1-2-2, so we switched to our 2-2-1. At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter what defense we play, they have to get down and play. They really just made a conscious effort to get out and defend today."
Hansen, making her second career start, led Auburn with a career-high 18 points on 6-of-10 shooting, including a 4-for-6 night from 3-point range. Hansen also led the Auburn defensive effort with a game-high four steals. White also shattered her previous career-high with a 12-point effort, going 3-for-4 from the floor and 6-of-8 at the free-throw line.
Junior Unique Thompson made it 4-for-4 this season on double-doubles with a 17-point, 12-rebound night. Dating back to the final game of last season, Thompson has five consecutive double-doubles, a feat not accomplished by an Auburn player since Le'Coe Willingham in 2004. Thompson also led the Tigers with five assists.
Senior Daisa Alexander had eight points, three assists and two steals, and freshman Annie Hughes added five points and four rebounds off the bench. Sophomore Natalie Kelly also contributed three points, a career-high, in three minutes of first-half action.
As a team, the Tigers shot a season-low 36.2 percent from the field but got to the free-throw line 30 times for the second time this season, making 19. Auburn also out-rebounded St. Joe's 40-34 and had just 10 turnovers, a season-low. The Hawks were 44.4 percent from the field but just 26.7 percent from 3-point range.
Auburn led throughout the majority of the game, but could never gain a strong foothold as the Hawks stayed persistent on the defensive end. The Hawks led 18-15 after finishing the first quarter on a 12-5 run, but Auburn went on an 8-0 run of its own to start the second quarter and take a 23-18 lead. And although the Tigers made just one field goal in the final five minutes of the half, Auburn took a 32-29 lead at the break.
A tough offensive third period for both teams ended with St. Joseph's holding a 46-45 lead. But the Tigers used several defensive stops and got timely shots from Hansen, Hughes and Morgan Robinson-Nwagwu to build a six-point lead at 64-58 with 1:16 to play. A pair of trips to the free-throw line for St. Joe's allowed the Hawks to cut the advantage to two points inside of 30 seconds, but the Tigers forced a turnover on the Hawks' next possession before a pair of Thompson free throws sealed the win.
Gabby Smalls led St. Joe's with 19 points and 8 rebounds, and Mary Sheehan added 15 points.
The Tigers begin a stretch of five straight games away from home this weekend when Auburn travels to Estero, Fla., for the Gulf Coast Showcase, playing three games in three days. The tournament begins Friday morning with a 10 a.m. CT contest against Middle Tennessee.