STARKVILLE, Miss. – One of the best all-around efforts of the season from the Auburn women's basketball team came up just short Thursday night as the Tigers dropped a 78-73 decision at No. 9 Mississippi State.
The Tigers had their best shooting night and scoring output in SEC play so far and led by as many as nine points early in the second half, but a string of Auburn turnovers late in the third quarter allowed the Bulldogs to pull ahead and stay there.
"Once again, it was the turnovers," Auburn head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said. "Right there where we needed to make the run, those turnovers took away our offensive possessions. But I thought we also did a very good job defensively understanding who to guard, who not to guard. We didn't make as many errors in our half-court defense. We did a very good job there.
"We've got to continue to play like this. You look at it and you say, boy, you wish you could have played this hard early on, we wouldn't be in the situation we're in right now. But you can't look back, we've got to move forward and get the ones ahead of us. Continue to play hard and clean up the turnovers, and we can win a lot of basketball games."
For just the second time this season, Auburn had two players top the 20-point mark. Unique Thompson led the way with a 21-point, 11-rebound effort, picking up her 18th double-double of the season and 38th of her career, moving her into a tie for second on the all-time Auburn list.
Daisa Alexander added 20 points, her fifth effort of 20 or more points this year, and matched her career-high with four 3-pointers on the night. Robyn Benton added 14 points to give Auburn three players in double-figures, and freshman Sania Wells, a Mississippi native, added a career-high eight points in a return to her home state.
The Tigers shot 49.1 percent from the field, their best in SEC play so far this year, hitting 27-of-55 attempts from the floor. Auburn was also 6-of-12 on 3-point attempts and out-rebounded a much taller Mississippi State team 34-27. But the Bulldogs shot 32-for-58 (55.2%) from the floor and forced Auburn into 24 turnovers, which turned into 24 MSU points. Auburn had one of its better nights scoring points off turnovers this year, though, scoring 21 off 18 MSU giveaways.
In a game that saw the lead change hands 23 times, the Tigers had the upper hand for much of the first half, holding the lead for more than half of the second quarter. Auburn took a 34-33 lead with 2:08 to play in the half on an Alexander trey and went on to finish the half on a 7-0 run to take a 40-33 lead to the break. The Tigers shot 55.6% in the first half and knocked down 5-of-7 3-pointers while scoring 14 points off 11 MSU turnovers.
After a Benton layup gave Auburn its largest lead at 42-33 to start the third quarter, the Bulldogs answered with a quickness, going on a 9-0 run over the next two minutes to tie the game at 42-42. It was tied again 51-51 with 2:59 to go in the third, but Auburn would turn the ball over on five of its next six possessions, allowing State to end the period on a 9-2 run to take a 60-53 lead to the fourth.
Auburn would pull back within two points at 71-69 with 3:35 to play, but was only able to make one field goal the rest of the way.
Rickea Jackson led MSU off the bench with 22 point; Jordan Danberry and Jessika Carter added 13 apiece.
The Tigers return to Auburn Arena Sunday afternoon to face Vanderbilt. Game time is 2 p.m. at Auburn Arena; it's the annual Pink Game for breast cancer awareness, and fans are encouraged to wear pink.