AUBURN, Ala. – Two teams put unbeaten starts to the season on the line Friday night as Auburn's women host California at Neville Arena. Game time is set for 7 p.m. CT.
Friday's game will feature a student tailgate on the lawn outside the student entrance to Neville Arena, beginning at 5 p.m. The first 150 students receive a free Chick-fil-A sandwich, and students can enter drawings for a chance to win a Yeti cooler, Apple headphones and a Lululemon gift card.
Auburn is 3-0 after starting off the season with home wins over Jacksonville State and Louisiana-Lafayette, followed by a road win at Rutgers Sunday. Cal is also 3-0; the Bears have defeated CSU Bakersfield, Santa Clara and Cal Poly to open their season.
For a limited time, fans can purchase advance tickets for just $4 for both Friday's game and the Nov. 26 Alabama A&M game by using the link on this page. These tickets are only available via this link. Tickets purchased at the arena on gameday are $10.
PARKING ALERT
›› Due to Saturday's home football game vs. New Mexico State, the East Coliseum lot will be unavailable for basketball parking Friday night. Fans are urged to park in the Campus Safety lot on the north side of the arena. Parking is also available in the Arena lot, Stadium deck and Athletic Complex deck.
ON THE AIR
›› Brit Bowen and Larry DiChiara will have the radio call on AU100 (100.3 FM) beginning at 6:45 p.m. CT. The broadcast can also be heard on AuburnTigers.com and the Auburn Athletics app.
›› Friday's game can be seen on SEC Network + with Wiley Ballard and Hall-of-Fame coach Joe Ciampi calling the action. SEC Network + is available via the ESPN app or WatchESPN.com.
LAST TIME OUT
›› A massive scoring run in the second quarter helped Auburn overcome a double-digit early deficit and earn a 76-56 win over Rutgers Sunday afternoon on the road.
›› The Tigers (3-0) trailed by as many as 13 late in the first quarter, but they would outscore Rutgers (2-1) by a 34-5 margin over the next 12-plus minutes to open up an insurmountable lead.
›› Honesty Scott-Grayson, playing in front of nearly 50 friends and family in the return to her home state of New Jersey, scored 18 points along with three rebounds, a team-leading four assists and a steal. Freshman Savannah Scott continued a blistering start to her Auburn career with her first collegiate double-double, scoring 21 points on 8-of-10 shooting along with 11 rebounds.
›› Sydney Shaw added 10 points, and Mar'Shaun Bostic had nine along with three assists and a pair of steals. And Celia Sumbane wreaked havoc at the top of Auburn's 3-2 zone, grabbing three steals, a pair each of blocks and assists, and five points.
AN AUBURN WIN WOULD...
›› Give the Tigers their first 4-0 start to a season since 2016-17 (started 5-0).
›› Be Auburn's second victory over Cal this athletics season (Football won 14-10 in Berkeley on Sept. 9).
›› Improve Auburn to 15-3 all-time against the Pac-12.
SCOUTING THE GOLDEN BEARS
›› California is 3-0 after home wins over CSU Bakersfield, Santa Clara and Cal Poly to open the season.
›› Through three games, Cal averages 78.0 points per game and is holding opponents to 57.3.
›› Last season, Cal went 13-17 overall and 4-14 in the Pac-12, finishing 10th.
›› Ioanna Krimili, a transfer from San Francisco and three-time All-WCC selection, leads the Bears in scoring through three games with 15.0 points/game. Tennessee transfer Marta Suarez is second on the team with 12.7 points/game.
AUBURN-CAL SERIES
›› This is the first meeting between Auburn and Cal in women's basketball.
›› In 17 previous meetings with nine other Pac-12 schools, Auburn is 14-3. Eleven of those 17 games have been played at neutral sites with four of them in the NCAA Tournament.
›› Cal will be just the second Pac-12 team to visit Auburn for women's basketball. Oregon faced the Tigers at Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum in the 1989 Auburn Dial Classic; Auburn won 89-78.
SCOUTING AUBURN
›› Auburn is 3-0 after wins over Jacksonville State and Louisiana-Lafayette at home, along with a road win at Rutgers, to open the season.
›› Graduate student Honesty Scott-Grayson led the Tigers with 14 point in the opener vs. JSU, then hit two clutch 3-pointers late in the win over UL-Lafayette and finished with 15 points. Her season-high came in her "homecoming" game at Rutgers Nov. 12 when she scored 18 points. She is second on the team with 15.7 points/game and also averages 5.7 rebounds and 3.0 assists.
›› Freshman Savannah Scott has been a force under the basket in the first three games, averaging a team-best 16.7 points and 8.3 rebounds. She led the Tigers with 16 points in the win over ULL, then posted her first career double-double with 21 points and 11 rebounds in the win at Rutgers. At 6-4, she adds much-needed size in the post, as do fellow freshmen Timya Thurman (6-5) and Yakiya Milton (6-4) along with sophomore Oyindamola Akinbolawa (6-5).
›› Sophomore Sydney Shaw scored 10 points in the comeback win over UL-Lafayette last Thursday, then matched that with 10 at Rutgers Sunday. She is tied for third on the team with 9.0 points/game. Shaw started 25 games last season, averaging 7.6 points, and 2.6 rebounds. Possibly the Tigers' best pure shooter, she moves from playing significant minutes at point guard last year to mostly at the 2-guard spot this season, although she has run the point at times in the first three games.
›› Senior Taylen Collins had a huge second half to spark the comeback win over UL-Lafayette on Nov. 9 with all nine of her points and 8 of 14 rebounds coming after halftime. She averages 7.0 points and 6.7 rebounds through three games. Collins, a transfer from Oklahoma State, was fourth in the Big 12 in rebounding last year with 9.5 points and 9.1 rebounds per game.
›› Junior Mar'Shaun Bostic had a huge game in the opener with 12 points, 4 assists, 4 steals and 3 rebounds. She was a breakout star in the Tigers' final game of the season last year, scoring a career-high 23 points in the WNIT second round matchup at Clemson. She played in all 31 games last year, averaging 5.6 points and 1.9 rebounds. Bostic, one of the fastest players in the SEC, looks to play significant minutes at point guard and can be one of the SEC's top defenders.
›› Sophomore Kaitlyn Duhon started the season off with a bang, scoring 13 points along with 3 rebounds and 2 steals in the opener vs. JSU. In the two exhibition games, she had 6 steals in each and recorded a 10-point, 10-rebound double-double vs. Columbus State.
›› Celia Sumbane and McKenna Eddings, both JUCO All-Americans last season, have played significant minutes in the first three games. They both had their best games at Rutgers as Eddings had 4 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, a steal and a block in 24 minutes of action, and Sumbane was a beast at both ends of the floor with 5 points, 2 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 assists and 2 blocks.
›› JaMya Mingo-Young (Alabama/Mississippi State) averaged 5.4 points and 4.4 rebounds in 14 games at Alabama before missing the second half of the season with injury; in 2021-22, she started all 34 games and averaged 11.6 points, 6.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists and finished second in the SEC with 80 steals. She has missed the season's first three games with injury.
POST ME UP, SCOTTIE
›› Freshman center Savannah Scott could not have asked for a better start to her Auburn career, leading the Tigers in scoring through the first three games at 16.7 ppg. She also leads Auburn with 8.3 rebounds, and she leads the SEC in field goal percentage at 76.9% (20-of-26).
›› For her efforts in the opening week of the season, where she led Auburn in scoring twice and recorded her first career double-double with 21 points and 11 rebounds in a win at Rutgers, Scott was named the season's first SEC Freshman of the Week.
UP NEXT
›› Auburn hits the road for the second time this season when they head to Orlando, Florida, to take on the UCF Knights. Game time is 6 p.m. CT Monday, Nov. 20, at Addition Financial Arena.
Women's hoops back home to face Cal Friday night
