AUBURN, Ala. – After 24 days and more than 9,800 miles of traveling, the Auburn women’s basketball team is finally back home Sunday to take on UAB. The game is scheduled for a 2 p.m. CT start; it’s part of a doubleheader with the Auburn men’s team, who faces Richmond at 11 a.m.
The Tigers (6-3) are coming off a road win at Virginia Thursday night, where they defeated the Cavaliers 66-57 as part of the SEC/ACC Challenge. UAB (6-3) is playing its first game in a week; the Blazers beat Southern Miss 87-66 last Sunday in their last outing.
DOUBLEHEADER TICKET AND PARKING INFORMATION
›› Doors open for men’s basketball at 9:30 a.m. The arena lot and levels 3 and 4 of the Stadium Deck will be reserved for men’s basketball parking pass holders.
›› A portion of the Coliseum lot will be reserved for women’s basketball parking pass holders.
›› Tiger Transit service will run from the stadium deck and ADA lot on Wire Road to the Scholarship Entrance beginning at 9:30 a.m. and will continue until one hour after the end of the women’s game.
›› The arena will not be cleared between games. Fans attending the men’s game are welcome and encouraged to stay for the women’s game. Women’s basketball ticket holders will have access to their seats when the men’s game ends. Men’s ticket holders without a women’s ticket may move to general admission seating.
›› Ticket scanning for the women’s game will begin at approximately 12:45 p.m. Re-entry between games will not be permitted without the purchase of a new ticket.
PROMOTIONS
›› Students in attendance for the men’s game who receive the “ugly sweater” giveaway will also receive a voucher for a matching beanie. That giveaway will be available at halftime of the women’s game.
›› Sunday’s game will be the annual Teddy Bear Toss. Fans are encouraged to bring a stuffed animal to throw onto the court at halftime of the women’s game.
TOY DRIVE
›› Fans are encouraged to bring a toy for Auburn Public Safety’s annual Toy Drive.
›› This is the 50th anniversary of the Auburn Public Safety Toy Drive benefiting children ages 2-14 within the Auburn City limits. Officers will gather donations at both games. Acceptable toys include bicycles to board games and everything in-between.
›› Fans unable to donate a toy at either game on Sunday, can also participate by dropping off newly-purchased unwrapped gifts during Auburn Public Safety’s drive-through donation event on Saturday, Dec. 14, at the Dean Road Recreation Center located at 307 South Dean Road, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. No monetary donations can be accepted.
ON THE AIR
›› Brit Bowen will have the radio call on ESPN 106.7 FM beginning at 1:45 p.m. CT. The broadcast can also be heard on AuburnTigers.com and the Auburn Athletics app.
›› The game can be seen on SEC Network + with the Auburn radio call accompanying the video board feed.
LAST TIME OUT
›› DeYona Gaston scored 23 points as Auburn women’s basketball picked up a key victory on the road Thursday night, defeating Virginia 66-57 in the SEC/ACC Challenge.
›› The shorthanded Tigers (6-3), with only nine players dressed, got contributions up and down the lineup as they overcame a couple of cold stretches and held off a late Virginia rally to grab their first true road win of the year.
›› Gaston’s 23 led all scorers, and she also added six rebounds, five steals and three assists. Taylen Collins had her best night of the year with a season-high 14 points, a team-leading seven rebounds and a pair of blocks. Mar’Shaun Bostic added seven points and seven assists, and Audia Young scored eight points off the bench.
AN AUBURN WIN WOULD...
›› Improve Auburn to 4-0 at home this year.
›› Be the 19th win in the last 20 meetings with UAB.
SERIES HISTORY VS. UAB
›› This is the 38th meeting between Auburn and UAB in women’s basketball, the first in Auburn since 2015.
›› Auburn leads the series 32-5, including a 15-1 advantage in games played in Auburn. The Tigers have won 18 of the last 19 overall meetings.
LAST MEETING: Dec. 3, 2023, at Birmingham
Auburn 72, UAB 62
›› Honesty Scott-Grayson scored a then-season high 22 points, and the Auburn women’s basketball team held off a late UAB run for a 72-62 win at Bartow Arena.
›› Trailing by one after 10 minutes, the Tigers (6-2) went on a 14-2 run in the second quarter to open a double-digit lead, and UAB (6-2) would never get any closer than seven points the rest of the way.
›› Mar’Shaun Bostic was Auburn’s only other player in double figures with 12 points; she also had four steals, four rebounds and a pair of assists. Taylen Collins had one of her better games of the year, scoring eight points with a team-best eight rebounds, along with three assists and two blocked shots. Sydney Shaw also added eight points, and Kaitlyn Duhon – in limited minutes because of foul trouble – had six points and six rebounds.
SCOUTING THE BLAZERS
›› UAB is 6-2 on the season. The Blazers have won their last two games, defeating Southern Miss at home and Alabama State at a neutral site.
›› The Blazers average 73.6 points per game while giving up 63.9.
›› Maddie Walsh leads UAB with 13.0 points per game. Jade Weathersby averages a double-double with 11.1 points and 10.4 rebounds.
SCOUTING AUBURN
›› Auburn is 6-3 after a 66-57 win at Virginia Thursday night in the SEC/ACC Challenge, their first road win of the season.
›› Through games of Dec. 5, Auburn is top 30 nationally in 3-point percentage (9th - 40.0%), scoring defense (18th - 53.3), turnover margin (25th - +7.6) and turnovers forced per game (29th - 22.6).
›› Graduate student DeYona Gaston set a Neville Arena record for an Auburn player with 36 points in the win over VUL. She also recorded her 1,000th career point and 500th career rebound in that victory. She has three double-doubles so far this season, including a 28-point, 10-rebound performance against PItt in the Paradise Jam. She leads the Tigers with 19.5 points and 9.3 rebounds per game. She also hit a corner 3-pointer with 1.6 seconds left to beat Northern Iowa on Nov. 28; it was just the second 3-pointer of her five-year collegiate career. Gaston added 23 points to lead the Tigers to a win at Virginia Dec. 5.
›› Sophomore Taliah Scott, a transfer from Arkansas, made a splash in her Auburn debut, tying the program record for single-game 3-pointers with eight in the Tigers’ win over Little Rock Nov. 14. She scored 26 points in the game along with a career-high 9 rebounds. She followed that up with a 28-point night at Oregon where she knocked down seven 3-pointers. She has missed the last four games with injury.
›› Graduate student Taylen Collins averages 9.2 points and 6.1 rebounds so far this season. She was the Tigers’ leading returning scorer (7.9 ppg) and rebounder (6.3 rpg) from last season. She hit double-digit scoring twice at the Paradise Jam last week and had 10 rebounds in the win over Pitt, then scored a season-high 14 in the win at Virginia.
›› Senior Mar’Shaun Bostic has been the Tigers’ starting point guard most of the season, currently ranking fifth in the SEC with 5.3 assists per game. She’s had five or more assists in six of nine games so far. One of the fastest players and top defenders in the SEC, she led the Tigers with 1.6 steals per game in 2023-24 and leads the Tigers with 2.0 steals per game this year.
›› Junior Kaitlyn Duhon had a strong showing at the Paradise Jam, scoring 10 points with a pair of 3-pointers vs. Kansas, and turning four steals into eight points vs. UNI. Another elite defender, Duhon averaged 1.2 steals per game while scoring 5.4 points/game last season. Duhon was strong in the opener with 12 points, 5 rebounds and 3 steals off the bench, then bested that effort vs. VUL with 13 points, 3 assists and 4 steals.
›› Senior Celia Sumbane scored a career-high 19 points with 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals vs. VUL. She was then named to the Paradise Jam all-tournament team after averaging 10.2 points in the tournament, including 16 in the final game vs. Kansas. She leads the Tigers in field goal percentage at 58.0%.
›› Sophomore Audia Young opened the season with a bang, scoring a career-high 11 points on 3-4 3FG along with four steals vs. SIU. She then set another career high vs. VUL with 18 points, 4 assists and 5 steals. She hit double-digits a third time with 11 points in the win over Pitt, which included three 3-pointers, and she hit a crucial 3-pointer in the fourth quarter to help secure the win at Virginia.
›› True freshmen Jordan Hunter and Syriah Daniels - two of the top high school players in Alabama a year ago - saw their first collegiate action vs. SIU. Hunter had 6 assists and 4 rebounds off the bench in the opener, then went 7-for-7 from the field for 15 points along with 6 assists vs. VUL. Daniels had 12 points and 4 steals in the VUL win.
UP NEXT
›› Auburn has the next week-plus off for final exams. The Tigers will be back in action Wednesday, Dec. 18, with their final non-conference road game at Louisiana-Lafayette. Game time is 11 a.m. at the Cajundome.