COLUMBIA, Mo. – Auburn fought back in the closing minutes of regulation to force overtime, but Missouri pulled away in the extra period as Auburn fell 72-63 Thursday night at Mizzou Arena.
Auburn (8-5, 0-2 SEC) led by as many as seven in the second half and five in the fourth quarter, but several runs by Missouri (13-2, 2-0) coupled with Auburn cold stretches kept the Tigers from pulling away.
"I thought our guards did a really good job," Auburn head coach Johnnie Harris said. "But they kind of owned us in the paint. Our guards played really hard. We got some steals, caused them some turnovers in the fourth quarter, and we were able to tie it up and go to overtime.
"They started going in to their five-player. And we missed some shots. We didn't get to the free-throw line like we needed to. We started taking early, quick shots, and they were working it. That's the difference – a team like this, you have to do every little thing right, and we made some big mistakes down the stretch. Then, in overtime, they went in to their post player, we let her catch the ball deep, and she buried it."
Sania Wells scored a career-high 20 points, including the bucket in the final 30 seconds to force overtime, and pulled down four rebounds. Aicha Coulibaly and Honesty Scott-Grayson added 15 points apiece. Kiyae' White led the Tigers with nine rebounds.
The Tigers' defense was huge early and kept them in the game as they turned 20 Mizzou turnovers into 24 points. But Missouri still shot 51 percent from the field (26-51) and was 16-of-19 at the free-throw line. Meanwhile, Auburn was 27-of-71 (38%) from the floor. Mizzou out-rebounded Auburn 38-34 and out-scored Auburn in the paint 38-30.
Auburn led 32-28 at the half on the strength of converting eight Missouri turnovers into 14 points. That didn't include the highlight of the night, a Coulibaly block of a Mizzou 3-pointer that she turned into a fast-break layup on the other end to push Auburn's lead to six early in the second quarter.
A Coulibaly 3-pointer at 6:07 of the third quarter gave Auburn its largest lead at 40-33, but the Tigers went scoreless for the next six-plus minutes as a 12-0 Missouri run gave them a 45-40 lead at the end of three.
But Auburn answered with a 9-0 run of its own midway through the fourth to move back ahead 53-48. From there, Mizzou used a 6-0 run over the next two minutes to move back ahead. Trailing 59-57 after a Coulibaly layup and Mizzou's Blackwell hitting one of two free throws, Wells drove to the middle of the paint and hit a 10-foot floater to tie the score with 19 seconds to play. Mizzou was unable to get a shot off before regulation ended tied at 59-59.
Overtime, however, belonged to Mizzou. After a 5-0 MU run to start, a Wells layup cut the deficit to 64-61. But from there, Mizzou finished on an 8-2 run.
LaDazhia Williams led Missouri with 25 points, and Aijha Blackwell added 13 points and 14 rebounds.
Auburn is back in action Sunday with their first home game in nearly three weeks as No. 13 LSU visits Auburn Arena. Game time is 4 p.m. CT; the first 500 fans will receive a free Auburn women's basketball t-shirt.