AUBURN, Ala. – Honesty Scott-Grayson recorded her second straight double-double, Kiyae' White matched a career-high in scoring, and Auburn gave coach Johnnie Harris her first victory as a head coach with a 74-45 win over Alabama State Thursday night.
The Tigers (1-2) held a double-digit lead for most of the game and pulled away late, finishing the game on a 13-0 run and outscoring Alabama State (0-3) 24-7 in the final period.
"This one means a lot," Harris said. "When you make so many mistakes in the first couple of games – and we felt like we should have had chances to win both of those – but you come back and correct them, you put it all on the floor, it just feels good.
"We pressured the ball, but I thought the key was denying the turn of the floor. We wanted to make them score in ways they didn't want to score – take them out of their offensive set and make somebody else score. I thought our kids did a good job of that. We boxed out, we rebounded and we pushed it on the offensive end.
Scott-Grayson led all scorers with 21 points and pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds for her second double-double in as many games, also the second of her career. White scored 15 points to match a career-high and contributed seven rebounds along with three steals.
Aicha Coulibaly narrowly missed her second-straight double-double with a 9-point, 9-rebound night that also included a team-leading five steals. Annie Hughes added nine points and six rebounds, and Sania Wells scored eight points with a career-high seven assists. Coulibaly, White and Jala Jordan each had two blocks.
As a team, Auburn shot 38.5 percent (25-65) from the field but hit a season-high six 3-pointers, led by a pair of treys from Jala Jordan. The Tigers were also 18-of-25 (72%) at the free-throw line.
A season-high 51 rebounds for Auburn were 20 more than Alabama State; it was the first time ASU had been out-rebounded this season. The Tigers also controlled the paint with 32 points.
"We knew they had out-rebounded Mississippi State, they out-rebounded both of their opponents," Harris said. "We knew they were tough on the boards. We really focused on boxing out and rebounding this week."
After Alabama State scored the game's first basket, Auburn ended the first quarter on a 19-3 run to take a 19-5 lead after one. Auburn led by as many as 18 late in the second quarter, but the Hornets took advantage of several Tiger miscues over the final 90 seconds to cut the lead to 10 points at 35-25 headed to the locker room.
The teams traded runs throughout the third period as a Xaria Wiggins layup at the buzzer gave Auburn a 12-point lead at 50-38 headed to the fourth. But the final 10 minutes were all Auburn as the Tigers held ASU without a field goal for the final eight-plus minutes and ended the game on a 13-0 run.
Ayana Emmanuel led Alabama State with 18 points, and Jayla Crawford added 14. The Hornets shot 27 percent for the game (14-52).
Following two games in three days, Auburn will have a few days off before heading up the road to Atlanta on Sunday to take on 18th-ranked Georgia Tech. Game time is 3 p.m. CT at McCamish Pavilion with a national broadcast on ACC Network.
Auburn tops Alabama State 74-45 for Harris' first win
