AUBURN, Ala. – In their Neville Arena finales, DeYona Gaston scored 33 points and Mar’Shaun Bostic posted a Senior Day double-double, but Mississippi State took control in the second half and defeated Auburn 73-66 Sunday at Neville Arena.
“Mar’Sahun was focused and ready to go, getting people where they needed to be, finding the mismatches, finding the right reads,” Auburn coach Johnnie Harris said. “DeYona always shows up. She’s a tough matchup. Both of those kids brought it.”
Bostic flirted with a triple-double, totaling 13 points, a career-high 10 rebounds and eight assists.
In her fifth 30-point game of the season, Gaston was 13-for-23 from the field and 7 of 8 from the free-throw line.
Gaston scored 10 points in the first quarter to help the Tigers lead 17-9 after the opening period.
“I thought our defense was really good and we were able to create some mismatches,” Harris said.
Yuting Deng’s deep 3-pointer capped a 9-0 run that gave Auburn an 11-2 lead midway through the quarter.
Freshman Syriah Daniels sparked Auburn off the bench with back-to-back buckets early in the second quarter.
Gaston continued to pour in points in the second quarter, adding eight more to total 18 in the first half.
Auburn forced 14 turnovers in the half and converted them into 14 points. Daniels made one of the Tigers’ 10 first-half steals and passed to Gaston for a transition layup that helped Auburn lead throughout the half.
Bostic penetrated and passed back to Gaston for a jump shot that gave Auburn a 31-24 halftime lead.
The Tigers found themselves on the wrong end of a 10-0 run to start the third quarter, with Mississippi State hitting its first two 3-point attempts to take its first lead of the game, forcing an Auburn timeout at the 8:23 mark.
“Coming out of the locker room, they picked on a couple people, got downhill and found the open person,” Harris said. “They did a really good job of reversing the ball, moving it, one extra and they knocked down some 3s.”
The Bulldogs outscored Auburn 25-14 in the quarter, but Deng’s 3-pointer from the wing with seven seconds left pulled the Tigers within four points going to the fourth quarter.
Gaston scored Auburn’s first four points of the fourth quarter, trimming State’s lead to 51-49 before the Bulldogs answered with a corner 3-pointer.
After going 0-for-5 on 3-point attempts in the first half, Mississippi State made 5 of 9 from long range in the second half to take control of the game.
Trailing by nine with 2:06 to play, Bostic made a layup and a 3-pointer to get the Tigers within four points with 1:17 remaining, but Madina Okot, who grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds, made a layup with 59 seconds to play to thwart Auburn’s comeback bid.
Auburn honored seniors Gaston, Bostic, Taylen Collins and Celia Sumbane in a pregame ceremony.
Auburn (12-17, 3-13) looks to snap a six-game losing streak by advancing in the SEC Tournament. The Tigers play Florida Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. CT in Greenville, South Carolina.
“We’re going to have to have multiple people step up. It’s going to have to be a total team effort,” Harris said. “We’ve been talking about punch first. We have to have a good start, but we also have to have a good finish.
“We have to keep punching, keep swinging. That’s our message to them. You have dig in a little bit harder and find a little bit more so we can come out with a victory. We’ve been close in a lot of games. Just a little bit more effort. They need to sell out. Give us everything you have and let’s see what happens.”
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on X: @jeff_shearer