AUBURN, Ala. – The Auburn women's basketball team wraps up a six-game home stand and non-conference play for the year when they host North Florida Tuesday at Neville Arena. Tip is set for noon CT.
The Tigers (9-2) have won six in a row, the last being a 91-37 shellacking of Samford Sunday afternoon that saw Auburn tie a school record for steals in a game. North Florida (3-5) is playing its first game in 11 days; they defeated Trinity Baptist in their last outing Dec. 9.
ON THE AIR
›› Brit Bowen and JJ Jackson will have the radio call on WQSI 93.9 FM beginning at 11:45 a.m. The broadcast can also be heard on AuburnTigers.com and the Auburn Athletics app.
›› SEC Network + will have a live stream with the AU Sports Network audio on WatchESPN.com and the ESPN app.
LAST TIME OUT
›› Auburn used a suffocating defense to force a season-high in turnovers, tied a school record in steals, and four players scored in double figures as the Tigers crushed Samford 91-37 Sunday afternoon at Neville Arena.
›› The Tigers (9-2) turned 36 Bulldog turnovers into 50 points and saw every player on the active roster score for the third time this season as Auburn won its sixth straight.
›› Auburn's 24 steals tied the program record, previously set against Tennessee State in 2001 and East Carolina in 2015. The Tigers' 36 forced turnovers were their most in a game since forcing Troy into 38 in the 2016-17 season opener. And the 54-point margin of victory was the largest since the 2008-09 season when the Tigers defeated Sam Houston 119-54.
›› Romi Levy was huge at both ends of the floor, scoring 13 points along with seven rebounds, five assists and five steals, plus a pair of blocked shots. She was 5-of-6 from the floor and did not have a turnover on the day. Sania Wells had a career-high eight rebounds along with 10 points, three assists and three steals, and Honesty Scott-Grayson led the Tigers in scoring for the sixth time in seven games with a game-high 14 points.
AN AUBURN WIN WOULD...
›› Equal the Tigers' win total from the entire 2021-22 season with their 10th of the year.
›› Improve Auburn to 9-1 at home this season.
›› Be the Tigers' seventh straight win.
›› Push Auburn's record to 10-2, the Tigers' best start since 2018-19 (12-1).
AUBURN-NORTH FLORIDA SERIES
›› Auburn and North Florida are meeting for the third time in women's basketball. The Tigers have won the two previous meetings, both at home.
LAST MEETING: Nov. 30, 2021, at Auburn
Auburn 72, North Florida 65
›› Auburn withstood a second-half offensive barrage from North Florida, playing strong defense down the stretch to earn a 72-65 win at Auburn Arena.
›› Led by another big night from Aicha Coulibaly, the Tigers overcame a late deficit with a 12-2 run over the last five minutes to pick up their second straight win at home.
›› North Florida led 63-60 at the under-5 timeout of the fourth quarter. But the Tigers would get defensive stops on the Ospreys' next six possessions, starting with a game-tying layup from Honesty Scott-Grayson, then a drawn charge by Scott-Grayson that led to a Jala Jordan bucket to push Auburn ahead 65-63. From there, Auburn would never trail again as UNF went nearly five minutes without scoring. Over the final 81 seconds, the Tigers would make seven of eight free throws to seal the win.
›› Coulibaly led four Tigers in double figures, topping the 20-point mark for the second straight game. She finished with 23 points, eight rebounds, three steals, two assists and a block. Scott-Grayson overcame early foul trouble to post a 13-point night, and Sania Wells and Annie Hughes added 10 apiece. Wells was clutch at the free-throw line, hitting 8-of-8 attempts as she stayed nearly perfect on the season.
SCOUTING THE OSPREYS
›› North Florida is 3-5 on the season. Two of their three wins have come against non-Division I competition; they also defeated Bethune-Cookman.
›› The Ospreys average 65.6 points per game while holding opponents to 65.3. UNF is 54th in the nation with 10.4 steals per game.
›› Lyric Swann leads UNF with 16.1 points per game, and Emma Broermann averages 8.1 rebounds.
SCOUTING AUBURN
›› Auburn is 9-2 after six straight wins, the last five coming at home. The Tigers are 8-1 at home this season.
›› The Tigers rank 4th nationally with 6.5 blocks per game and 28th in the country with 14.9 offensive rebounds per contest. Auburn is also top-50 nationally in 3-point percentage at 37.4% (22nd) and scoring offense at 78.4 points/game (36th).
›› Auburn forces an average of 22.2 turnovers per game, which ranks 20th nationally and 2nd in the SEC. The Tigers have forced 20 or more turnovers in 7 of 11 games.
›› Junior Aicha Coulibaly is fourth in the SEC in scoring (16.8 ppg) and steals (2.3 spg). Those numbers rank her 83rd nationally in scoring and 94th in steals. She has two double-doubles this season, with her last coming against UCF Dec. 3 (17 points, 12 rebounds). She was a preseason All-SEC Second Team selection. Coulibaly missed the Tigers' last two games and is not expected to play vs. UNF.
›› Through 11 games, Honesty Scott-Grayson averages 15.7 points to rank second on the team and 9th in the SEC. She has led Auburn in scoring in six of the last seven games, topping the 20-point mark four times including a career-high 31 against North Carolina A&T. She is also the Tigers' top 3-point shooter, hitting 46.9% from long range (23-48) to rank 32nd nationally.
›› Redshirt sophomore Romi Levy recorded double-doubles against both Alabama State and Little Rock. Against Little Rock, she had career-highs in points (18) and rebounds (13) for her second career double-double. She has started the last five 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 three times this year, had a career-high 8 rebounds vs. Samford, and is 10-16 at the FT line so far this season.
›› Freshman point guard Sydney Shaw leads the Tigers with 3.8 assists/game, which ranks 7th in the SEC and leads all SEC freshmen. She scored a career-high 15 points and matched a season-best with 6 assists in the win over Louisiana-Lafayette.
›› 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. Richardson had a season-high 9 rebounds vs. Colorado State before leaving the game with injury. Junior Jakayla Johnson has earned three starts, averaging 5.0 points in those starts.
UP NEXT
›› After the holiday break, the Tigers begin SEC play with their first true road game of the year as they travel to Oxford, Miss., to take on Ole Miss on Thursday, Dec. 29. Game time is 6 p.m. CT at the SJB Pavilion.
Women's hoops wraps up non-conference play with North Florida
