AUBURN, Ala. – The Auburn women's basketball team rings in the New Year and opens their SEC home schedule Sunday afternoon when the Tigers host Missouri. Game time is 3 p.m. CT at Neville Arena.
Auburn (10-3, 0-1 SEC) looks to bounce back after dropping their conference opener on the road at Ole Miss Thursday night. Missouri (12-2, 1-0) opened league play at home Thursday with a win over Kentucky.
Arena doors open at 2 p.m. CT. Tickets are available at the arena ticket office on gameday or by visiting AUBTix.com.
ON THE AIR
›› Brit Bowen and Larry DiChiara will have the radio call on WQSI 93.9 FM beginning at 2:45 p.m. The broadcast can also be heard on AuburnTigers.com and the Auburn Athletics app.
›› Sunday's game can be seen on SEC Network with Tiffany Greene and Andraya Carter calling the action.
LAST TIME OUT
›› Auburn got off to a slow start and could not recover as the Tigers fell to Ole Miss 79-47 Thursday night in the SEC women's basketball opener for both teams.
›› Auburn (10-3, 0-1 SEC) struggled from the field throughout, and the Rebels (12-2, 1-0) controlled the paint and the boards to pull away for the win.
›› Aicha Coulibaly, returning to the lineup after missing the last three games, led the Tigers with 13 points. Kharyssa Richardson had a team-best eight rebounds along with eight points, and Mar'Shaun Bostic added nine points and led the Tigers with three assists
AN AUBURN WIN WOULD...
›› Surpass the Tigers' win total from the entire 2021-22 season with their 11th of the year.
›› Snap a two-game skid against Missouri.
›› Be Auburn's eighth straight home win and improve the Tigers to 10-1 at Neville Arena this year.
AUBURN-MISSOURI SERIES
›› Auburn is 6-9 all-time against Missouri with 13 of the 15 meetings coming since Missouri joined the SEC in 2012-13. Missouri has won the last two meetings, but Auburn won the two prior to that.
LAST MEETING: Jan. 6, 2022, at Columbia, Mo.
Missouri 72, Auburn 63 (OT)
›› 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 at Mizzou Arena.
›› Auburn led by as many as seven in the second half and five in the fourth quarter, but several runs by Missouri coupled with Auburn cold stretches kept the Tigers from pulling away.
›› 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.
SCOUTING MISSOURI
›› Missouri is 12-2 on the season and 1-0 in SEC play. The Tigers defeated Kentucky 74-71 in their league opener Thursday night at home.
›› Missouri averages 70.4 points/game while holding opponents to 55.9/game. The TIgers are a top-25 shooting team, hitting 46.6% from the field to rank 24th in the country.
›› Hayley Frank leads Missouri with 15.4 points per game with Lauren Hansen close behind at 15.1 points/game.
SCOUTING AUBURN
›› Auburn is 10-3 overall, 0-1 in SEC play after dropping their league opener at Ole Miss Thursday night. The Tigers won seven straight to close out non-conference play, the last six coming at home. The Tigers are 9-1 at home this season.
›› The Tigers rank 4th nationally with 6.2 blocks per game. Auburn is also top-30 nationally in 3-point percentage at 36.4% (29th), turnovers forced per game at 21.9 (19th), turnover margin at +5.9 (28th), and steals per game at 11.2 (26th).
›› Junior Aicha Coulibaly is sixth in the SEC in scoring (16.4 ppg) and fourth in steals (2.1 spg). 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 three games of non-conference but came back with 13 points at Ole Miss (12/29).
›› Honesty Scott-Grayson averages 15.8 points to rank second on the team and 8th in the SEC. She led Auburn in scoring in seven of the last eight games she played, 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 49.0% from long range (25-51) to rank 11th 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.
›› Freshman point guard Sydney Shaw leads the Tigers with 3.7 assists/game, which ranks 10th 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, and she scored at least 14 points in 3 of the last 4 non-conference games.
›› 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 four starts, scoring 8 points in two of the four.
UP NEXT
›› SEC play continues when Auburn hits the road again to take on No. 1 South Carolina on Thursday, Jan. 5. Game time is 6 p.m. CT in Columbia, S.C.
Auburn women host Missouri on New Year's Day
