LAS VEGAS – The Auburn women's basketball team will face its toughest tests of the season to date this weekend at the Las Vegas Invitational, which will be played Friday and Saturday at The Mirage Casino and Resort on the Las Vegas Strip.
Auburn (3-1) will take on No. 6/5 Indiana (5-0) at 7:45 p.m. CT Friday, then face Colorado State (3-1) at 5:30 p.m. CT Saturday.
ON THE AIR
›› Brit Bowen will have the radio call from Vegas beginning 15 minutes prior to tip for each game. Friday's game will air on WQSI 93.9 FM, and Saturday's game can be heard on WTGZ 95.9 FM. Both games can be heard on AuburnTigers.com and the Auburn Athletics mobile app.
›› FloHoops will carry a live stream of the tournament. Fans can purchase a subscription to watch the games at FloHoops.com.
LAST TIME OUT
›› Redshirt sophomore Romi Levy had her first career double-double, and all 13 Auburn players scored as the Tigers ran away from Alabama State 88-49 Sunday afternoon at Neville Arena.
›› The Tigers (3-1) shot a season-best 50.7percent and got plenty of production from the bench, who scored nearly half of Auburn's points on the night.
›› Levy, coming off the bench, finished with a career-high 16 points and 11 rebounds for the first double-double of her career and Auburn's second of the season. She also filled the stat sheet with three steals, two assists and two blocks in just over 20 minutes of action.
›› Aicha Coulibaly led all scorers with 21 points and matched a career-high with six steals; she also had seven rebounds. Sania Wells hit double-digits for the second time this season with 10 points to go with a pair of blocks. And freshman Sydney Shaw had a strong performance with eight points, a team-high six assists and two steals.
AN AUBURN WIN OVER INDIANA WOULD...
›› Improve the Tigers to 3-0 all-time against the Hoosiers.
›› Be Auburn's first top-5 win at a road or neutral site since the 1997 SEC Tournament (#4 Georgia, March 1 in Chattanooga, Tenn.).
›› Improve Auburn to 27-14 all-time against the Big Ten.
AN AUBURN WIN OVER COLORADO ST. WOULD...
›› Be Auburn's fourth win in the last five games played the same day as the Iron Bowl.
›› Improve Auburn to 6-3 against current members of the Mountain West Conference.
AUBURN-INDIANA SERIES
›› This is the third meeting between Auburn and Indiana. The Tigers won the first two - a massive comeback from a 17-point fourth-quarter deficit to earn a 71-67 win in 2016 at home, and a 65-53 victory on the road in 2017.
LAST MEETING: Dec. 3, 2017, at Bloomington
Auburn 65, Indiana 53
›› Behind a career-high 25 points from Daisa Alexander and clutch free-throw shooting in the fourth quarter, Auburn held off a late Indiana rally for a 65-53 win over the Hoosiers at Assembly Hall.
›› The Tigers saw a 15-point lead whittled down to just one point early in the fourth quarter, but Auburn's best free-throw shooting effort of the season saved the day as the Tigers hit 10-of-11 attempts at the line in the final period to seal the victory.
›› Alexander shattered her previous career-high with 25 points, scoring 12 of those in the fourth quarter as the Tigers pulled away late. She was 9-of-14 from the floor and hit three 3-pointers, then knocked down all four of her free-throw attempts. Two of those came on drives to the basket where she was fouled, made the layup and calmly sank the free throw.
›› Auburn shot 48.0 percent from the floor, including a 52.3-percent mark in the second half. The Tigers forced Indiana (4-4) into 23 turnovers, converting those into 25 points. The Hoosiers were 37.5 percent from the floor but kept the game in reach with strong outside shooting as they hit 5-of-10 3-point attempts in the second half.
AUBURN-COLORADO STATE SERIES
›› This is the first meeting between Auburn and Colorado State in women's basketball.
SCOUTING INDIANA
›› Indiana is 5-0 on the year and ranked No. 6 in the AP and No. 5 by the coaches. The Hoosiers' signature win so far is a 79-67 road victory at Tennessee; it's the only game where they haven't scored at least 80 points.
›› Indiana averages 89.2 points/game, which ranks 9th nationally.
›› Mackenzie Holmes with 17.4 points/game leads four Hoosiers that average double figures.
SCOUTING COLORADO STATE
›› Colorado State is 3-1 on the season and has big wins over BYU and Montana to its credit.
›› The Rams are the national leader in 3-point percentage, hitting 51.1% from distance (48-94) this year. They also lead the nation in assist/turnover ratio (2.46) and fewest turnovers per game (6.5).
›› McKenna Hofschild leads CSU with 17.2 points/game and ranks second in the nation with 9.0 assists/game.
SCOUTING AUBURN
›› Auburn is 3-1 with three wins at home over Sam Houston, South Alabama and Alabama State.
›› Junior Aicha Coulibaly was a preseason All-SEC Second Team selection after earning a nod to the postseason All-SEC Second Team last season. She is Auburn's leading returner in scoring (17.1 ppg), rebounding (7.5 rpg) and steals (2.2 spg). She ranked ninth in the SEC in scoring last season. She scored 24 points and had 10 rebounds in the season-opener vs. Sam Houston for her sixth career double-double and leads the Tigers with 18.8 points/game.
›› Redshirt senior Honesty Scott-Grayson returns for her third season on the court for Auburn. Through four games, she leads the Tigers with 3.8 assists/game and averages 8.8 points. She was second on the team with 13.0 points and 5.7 rebounds per game last year, starting 27 of 28 games.
›› Senior Sania Wells was the SEC's leading free-throw shooter in 2021-22, hitting 90.5% of her attempts (76-84). That percentage ranked sixth in the nation. Wells has topped the 10-point mark twice in four games and is 7-8 at the FT line so far this season.
›› Redshirt sophomore Romi Levy returns to action after missing the 2021-22 season with a torn ACL. In just her second game back, she scored a career-high 16 points along with 11 rebounds vs. Alabama State for her first career double-double.
›› Auburn's newcomers have all made an immediate impact with three freshmen - Kaitlyn Duhon, Sydney Shaw and Kharyssa Richardson - starting each of the first four games. Duhon scored 17 points in the win over South Alabama, and Shaw is second on the team with 3.0 assists per game.
IRON BOWL
›› Saturday's game with Colorado State will be the seventh time in the last 11 seasons that Auburn will play a women's basketball game the same day as the Auburn-Alabama football game.
›› The last five Auburn women's basketball games played the same day as the Iron Bowl have been decided by a combined nine points - 2-point wins over Samford, Dayton and Minnesota, a 2-point loss at Winthrop and a 1-point loss to Northwestern.
›› It will be the second time Auburn will play in Las Vegas on the same day as the Iron Bowl. The last time was Nov. 30, 2013, the day of the legendary Kick Six. Auburn WBB faced No. 15 Iowa State later that night.
UP NEXT
›› Auburn closes out November with a Wednesday matinee at home against Little Rock Nov. 30. Tip is set for noon CT.
Strong competition awaits Tigers at Las Vegas Invitational
