AUBURN, Ala. – The Auburn women’s basketball team is back inside Neville Arena Thursday night as they take on the Texas A&M Aggies. Game time is 6 p.m. CT.
Fans arriving early can pick up a set of Auburn Legends Limited Edition trading cards at the scholarship entrance. Arena doors will open at 5 p.m. CT.
The Tigers (11-11, 2-7 SEC) play the first of just two February home games before hitting the road for four of their next five. Texas A&M (10-11, 3-6) comes into Thursday night seeking their first road win of the season.
Tickets are available at AUBTix.com or at the Neville Arena ticket office on gameday.
ON THE AIR
›› Brit Bowen and Larry DiChiara will have the radio call on ESPN 106.7 FM beginning at 5:45 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 JJ Jackson and Joe Ciampi calling the action.
LAST TIME OUT
›› Auburn’s DeYona Gaston topped the 30-point mark for the fourth time this season, but the Tigers came up short in a hard-fought battle with No. 2 South Carolina, falling 83-66 Sunday afternoon.
›› She led four players in double-figures as Celia Sumbane knocked down three 3-pointers to finish with 11 points, Yuting Deng had 10 points in her first road game, and Mar’Shaun Bostic just missed a double-double with 10 points and nine assists.
›› Auburn had its best shooting day in SEC play at exactly 50 percent (25-of-50) and hit 5-of-11 3-point tries (45.5%). But the Gamecocks bested that, hitting 57.1 percent of their shots (32-56).
›› Turnovers and bench play proved to be the difference. Auburn turned the ball over 23 times, leading to 25 Carolina points, and the Gamecock bench scored 39 points. Carolina also scored 26 fast-break points, the most by an Auburn opponent this season.
AN AUBURN WIN WOULD...
›› Be Auburn’s third straight home win.
›› Give Auburn three straight wins at home against Texas A&M.
›› Secure a winning record at home for 2024-25.
SERIES HISTORY VS. TEXAS A&M
›› This is the 20th meeting between Auburn and Texas A&M. The Aggies controlled the series from the start, winning the first 16 meetings before Auburn broke through with a home win in 2023.
LAST MEETING: Feb. 25, 2024, in Auburn
Auburn 57, Texas A&M 41
›› Auburn’s familiar formula – turnovers and transition – carried the Tigers to a 57-41 victory over Texas A&M at Neville Arena.
›› The Tigers forced 29 turnovers, just two shy of the SEC program record of 31 set in 2013 vs. Mississippi State, leading to a 22-10 advantage in points off turnovers. Auburn outscored the Aggies 18-5 in fastbreak points, tallying nearly a third of its points in transition.
›› Taylen Collins, JaMya Mingo-Young and Sydney Shaw each scored 10 points to lead the Tigers. Honesty Scott-Grayson added nine points and Kaitlyn Duhon scored eight. Auburn limited all of Texas A&M’s scorers to single digits, holding the Aggies to their lowest point total of the season.
SCOUTING THE AGGIES
›› Texas A&M is 10-11 overall and 3-6 in SEC play. The Aggies own SEC wins over Ole Miss, Georgia and Kentucky, all at home, but are winless this season on the road.
›› The Aggies average 64.3 points per game while opponents score 65.4.
›› Former Tiger Aicha Coulibaly is the Aggies’ scoring leader for the season with 12.8 points per game, but she was injured in their game at LSU on Jan. 26 and will miss the rest of the season. Sahara Jones is the team’s active leader with 9.6 points per game.
SCOUTING AUBURN
›› Auburn is 11-11 overall, 2-7 in SEC play. After tonight’s game, the next four will be against top-25 oppponents with three of those on the road.
›› Auburn has held 16 of 21 Division I opponents below their season scoring average. Twelve of those opponents have scored more than 10 points below their season average.
›› Graduate student DeYona Gaston is the nation’s eighth-leading scorer and third in the SEC. She leads the Tigers with 22.0 points and 7.2 rebounds per game, ranking in the SEC’s top 10 in both categories. She has 11 games this season with 20 or more points and four with 30-plus. She set a Neville Arena record for an Auburn player with 36 points in the win over VUL, then nearly matched that with 35 points vs. Alabama State. She has five double-doubles so far this season, including a 29-point, 12-rebound performance vs. Norfolk State on Dec. 29. For her efforts against ULL (29 points)and Alabama State, she was named SEC Player of the Week. Gaston 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. She added 30 points in the Jan. 2 game vs. Ole Miss, going 14-for-17 at the free throw line. Her 14 made free throws and 17 attempts both tied Auburn program records.
›› Freshman Yuting Deng turned heads in her first three extended appearances, scoring 13 points in the win over Missouri Jan. 19, then knocking down four 3-pointers en route to a 16-point night against Florida Jan. 26. Deng entered the starting lineup Feb. 2 at South Carolina, scoring 10 points while hitting a pair of 3s. She arrived from China Jan. 11, made her debut vs. Texas five days later, then missed the game at Mississippi State with an injury suffered in practice the day before.
›› 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 17 games with an injury suffered at Cal on Nov. 22.
›› Graduate student Taylen Collins averages 8.2 points and 5.6 rebounds. She recorded her first double-double of the season with 15 points and 10 rebounds in the win over UAB Dec. 8. Collins hit double-digit scoring twice at the Paradise Jam and had 10 rebounds in the win over Pitt, then scored a then-season high 14 in the win at Virginia. She missed two recent games (Alabama State-illness, Norfolk State-injury) but returned to the lineup vs. Ole Miss. Collins pulled down a season-high 12 rebounds in the win over Florida Jan. 26.
›› Senior Mar’Shaun Bostic has been the Tigers’ starting point guard most of the season, currently ranking third in the SEC with 5.4 assists per game. She’s had five or more assists in 15 of 22 games. Her best game so far this season came at Kentucky on Jan. 12 when she scored a season-high 18 points along with 7 assists, then she matched that with another 18-point, 6-assist, 5-steal performance vs. Texas on Jan. 16. She then recorded a career-high 11 assists along with nine points in the win over Florida Jan. 26, then barely missed a double-double with 10 points and 9 assists at South Carolina. One of the fastest players and top defenders in the SEC, she leads the team with 2.0 steals per game this year (10th SEC).
›› 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 started the first 18 games, then recorded her first career double-double off the bench with 13 points and 11 rebounds vs. Missouri on Jan. 19.
›› 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. Young set a new career high at LSU with 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting, including 4-of-5 from 3-point range.
›› 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, then scored a career-high 14 points in her first career start to help the Tigers come from behind to beat UAB Dec. 8.
›› Junior Oyindamola Akinbolawa has made 11 starts in the post, averaging 4.0 points and 4.3 rebounds per game. She played her best career game vs. Northern Iowa at the Paradise Jam, finishing with 7 points and 10 rebounds, including her first career 3-pointer. She then scored a career-high 10 points at UL-Lafayette Dec. 18 and just missed her first career double-double with nine rebounds.
UP NEXT
›› Auburn is on the road for four of its next five games, beginning with the Tigers’ first-ever trip to Norman, Oklahoma, to take on the 15th-ranked Oklahoma Sooners. Game time is 7 p.m. CT Monday, Feb. 10, at the Lloyd Noble Center.