AUBURN, Ala. – For the first time in two weeks, the Auburn women's basketball team is back inside Neville Arena as they host the Kentucky Wildcats Thursday night. Game time is 6 p.m. CT.
Doors open at 5 p.m. CT. Fans are encouraged to utilize parking in the Campus Safety lot and enter through the north main entrance to reduce congestion at the doors. Additional parking is available in the Arena lot (with a game ticket), Coliseum lot and Stadium deck.
The Tigers (15-8, 4-6 SEC) secured their first SEC road win of the season Sunday when they defeated Missouri 70-59. Kentucky (9-15, 2-8) has dropped its last five in league play coming into Thursday's game.
Tickets are available in advance by visiting AUBTix.com and on gameday at the arena ticket office.
PLAY4KAY
›› Thursday is the annual Play4Kay Pink Game at Neville Arena, and fans are encouraged to wear pink in support of breast cancer awareness and research. Auburn coach Johnnie Harris will be donating $3 to the Kay Yow Foundation for every student in attendance.
›› Harris' first Division I assistant coaching position was with Kay Yow at NC State for the 2003-04 season.
ON THE AIR
›› Brit Bowen and Jacob Goins will have the radio call on AU100 (100.3 FM) beginning at 5:45 p.m. CT. The broadcast can also be heard on AuburnTigers.com and the Auburn Athletics app.
›› Thursday's game can be seen on SEC Network with Roy Philpott and Carolyn Peck calling the action.
LAST TIME OUT
›› Honesty Scott-Grayson topped the 20-point mark for the fourth straight SEC game, and Auburn never trailed in a 70-59 victory at Missouri for their first SEC road win of the year.
›› Auburn (15-8, 4-6 SEC) jumped out to a big lead and withstood a third-quarter run by Mizzou, pulling away early in the fourth to pick up their fourth win in league play.
›› Scott-Grayson's 24 points led all scorers as she was 8-of-13 from the floor and a perfect 7-of-7 from the free-throw line. She also pulled down five rebounds along with three assists and a steal.
›› JaMya Mingo-Young also had a big afternoon, recording her second double-double of the season with 10 points and 11 rebounds, along with a team-leading five assists and two steals.
AN AUBURN WIN WOULD...
›› Secure a second-straight winning season with a 16th win.
›› Be Auburn's 12th home win of the season.
›› Be the 993rd win in program history.
›› Give Auburn back-to-back wins over Kentucky for the first time since 2005-06.
AUBURN-KENTUCKY SERIES
›› Auburn and Kentucky are meeting for the 55th time with the series tied 27-27. Kentucky has a slight 12-11 advantage in Auburn, and the Wildcats have won 15 of the last 17 meetings.
LAST MEETING: Jan. 26, 2023, at Lexington
Auburn 71, Kentucky 68
›› Aicha Coulibaly scored 20 points, Sania Wells added a season-high 16, and Auburn never trailed in the second half while holding off a hard-charging Kentucky for a 71-68 win at Memorial Coliseum.
›› Auburn took a nine-point lead to the fourth quarter, but quickly saw Kentucky chip away and pull within two points in the final minute. Wells made two clutch free throws to push the advantage back to four, the Wildcats answered with two of their own, and then Auburn turned it over with 15 seconds left to give UK a chance to win the ballgame.
›› The Tigers got a stop, fought for a rebound and won a jump ball with the arrow in their favor with one second left and leading 70-68. Honesty Scott-Grayson was quickly fouled, she made one of two, and time expired on Auburn's first win in Lexington since 2006 and first SEC road victory since 2020.
SCOUTING THE WILDCATS
›› Kentucky, at 9-15 overall and 2-8 in SEC play, is still seeking its first road win of the season.
›› The Wildcats average 65.4 points per game and allow 74.0.
›› Ajae Petty leads Kentucky with 14.6 points and 10.5 rebounds per game. She has 12 double-doubles on the season, fourth-most in the SEC.
SCOUTING AUBURN
›› Auburn is 15-8 overall, 4-6 in SEC play after picking up its first SEC road win of the year Sunday at Missouri.
›› The Tigers have four road wins this season, the most since winning 10 times on the road in 2018-19.
›› Auburn has three top-30 wins this year, defeating NET No. 9 LSU, No. 25 Washington State and No. 28 Alabama, all at home.
›› The Tigers are 13-0 this season when shooting at least 40% from the field.
›› Graduate student Honesty Scott-Grayson has scored 15+ points in every SEC game this season and 20+ five times, including the last four straight games. She matched a career-high with 31 points vs. No. 1 South Carolina on Feb. 1. It was the third 30+ point game of her career and her fifth game with at least 20 points this season. She followed that up with a 27-point performance at Arkansas, then a 24-point night at Missouri. She was named SEC Player of the Week after a 21-point performance in the win over LSU, then matched that output with 21 in the win over Georgia. She leads the team with 17.7 points/game and also averages 4.0 rebounds and 2.3 assists. She averages 20.5 points/game in SEC play (2nd in SEC), and has scored in double figures in 21 out of 22 games she has played this year.
›› JaMya Mingo-Young leads Auburn with 3.8 assists/game, and she is second on the team with 8.8 points/game. She is third in the SEC and 20th nationally in assist/turnover ratio (2.6). She is also third in the league in free-throw percentage (83.1%) and made 29 consecutive free throws from the UAB game Dec. 3 until finally missing at Texas A&M Jan. 7. Mingo-Young scored a season-high 16 points against Clemson, hitting 9-of-11 free throw attempts, then matched her scoring output with 16 against Norfolk State and tied an Auburn record going 12-for-12 at the free-throw line. She made the highlight-reel play of the season to clinch the win over LSU, stealing the ball from Angel Reese and drawing a foul with 10 seconds to play and Auburn leading by 2, then sinking both free throws to secure the win.
›› Senior Taylen Collins scored a season-best 17 points in the win over Alabama State. 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 recorded her first Auburn double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds vs. Alabama A&M, then got her first in SEC play with 12 points and 11 rebounds at Arkansas. She averages 8.1 points and a team-leading 6.4 rebounds.
›› Junior Mar'Shaun Bostic scored a season-high 17 points on 7-11 shooting vs. Tennessee. She had a huge game in the opener vs. Jacksonville State with 12 points, 4 assists, 4 steals and 3 rebounds. She then had another huge game agains Clemson with 7 points, 4 assists and a career-high 5 steals. Another big game for her came against Georgia when she had 4 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 5 steals.
›› Sophomore Sydney Shaw scored a career-high 17 points at UCF and has hit double-figures in six games. Shaw also led the Tigers with 15 points in the Alabama A&M win and scored 11 against Clemson. She is fourth on the team with 6.2 points/game.
›› 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. She showed off her speed against Clemson, especially late in the first half, as she scored 10 points with 3 rebounds and 3 steals. She swiped a career-high 5 steals in just 10 minutes of action vs. Alabama State, and she has started seven games.
›› Freshman Savannah Scott has seen a resurgence since moving back into the starting lineup vs. Alabama, averaging 6.0 points and 4.3 rebounds over the last three games she has played. For the season, she averages 5.2 points and 3.7 rebounds, and she was SEC Freshman of the Week the opening week of the season after a double-double at Rutgers.
SHUT IT DOWN
›› Auburn's defense has been among the best in the SEC so far this year. In 10 SEC games, Auburn is holding opponents an average of 11.0 points below their season scoring average. Auburn's scoring defense is second in the league in SEC games at 63.7, behind only top-ranked South Carolina (58.8).
›› The biggest example was Auburn's home win over No. 7 LSU where the visiting Tigers - at the time the nation's top scoring team - were held to 62 points, their lowest total of the season and more than 28 points below their season average (as of 2/12).
›› Five opponents have all been held at least 10 points below their season average - South Carolina (12.6), Georgia (15.7), Vanderbilt (17.2), LSU (28.3) and Missouri (12.7).
PACKING THE HOUSE
›› Neville Arena has seen three of its four all-time largest women's basketball crowds in the first month of the 2024 SEC season.
›› Auburn set a Neville Arena record when 7,720 fans filled the stands for the Tigers' upset win over No. 7/4 LSU on Jan. 14; it was the second-largest women's basketball crowd in Auburn history - on Jan. 25, 2009, a crowd of 12,067 packed Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum as the Tigers defeated No. 10 Tennessee 82-68 with the Lady Vols fresh off the 2008 national title.
›› With 7,720 vs. LSU this year and 12,067 vs. Tennessee in 2009, the two largest crowds in Auburn women's basketball history have seen the Tigers defeat the defending national champions.
›› Another huge crowd of 6,075 filed into Neville Arena as the Tigers retired DeWanna Bonner's No. 24 prior to a 78-65 win over Alabama on Jan. 21. That was the third-largest Auburn women's basketball crowd at Neville Arena and ranks 12th all-time.
›› On Feb. 1, 4,814 fans were in attendance as the Tigers took on No. 1 South Carolina; it was the fourth-biggest crowd at Neville for women's hoops.
›› If 3,492 fans are in attendance for Thursday's game, Auburn will break the program's record for total attendance in a season (current record: 49,429 in 2008-09).
UP NEXT
›› Auburn hits the road again for its next two games, beginning with a trip across the state to face rival Alabama. Game time is 2 p.m. Sunday at Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa.
Tigers host Kentucky in Play4Kay Pink Game Thursday
