AUBURN, Ala.— Improving to 6-1 at home, Auburn defeated Alcorn State 62-50 Thursday at Neville Arena behind 15 points from Khady Leye and 14 from Harissoum Coulibaly.
“I’ve got to do a better job of figuring out my locker room and how to motivate them,” Auburn coach Larry Vickers said. “We’ve got to want a lot more. We’ve got to want to be more dominant as we prepare for the best league in the country.”
Auburn exceeded its average by making 15 steals and converting Alcorn 24 turnovers into 29 points.
Leye scored nine points in the first quarter on 4-for-5 shooting to help the Tigers take an 18-6 lead. She led Auburn with five rebounds.
Alcorn State opened the second quarter with a 5-0 run before Auburn used its bread-and-butter recipe – steals and transition buckets – to retake control. The Tigers scored 27 fast-break points and 42 points in the paint.
Kaitlyn Duhon made three steals and made all three of her shots to score seven points in the second quarter, including a 3-pointer in a 9-0 run that gave Auburn a 17-point lead late in the half.
“Our transition offense was really good,” Vickers said. “We came out those first 30 with a lot of energy.”
Alcorn State (3-7) ended the run with a steal and layup with six seconds left but Auburn answered when Sania Richardson received the inbounds pass, dribbled three times and launched from half court to beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer that gave Auburn a 38-20 halftime lead.
“One thing about freshmen, they enjoy every moment they get on the floor,” Vickers said. “They work on half-court shots at the end of every shootaround. They love shooting them. We needed those.”
In the third quarter, Auburn doubled the score when Richardson made a steal and passed to Coulibaly for a layup and a 46-23 lead.
Coulibaly followed with another steal and score, and Richardson added a conventional 3-pointer to help Auburn maintain its 23-point advantage going to the fourth quarter.
Alcorn State beat Auburn at its own game in the final period, forcing seven turnovers, holding the Tigers to 2-of-10 shooting and using a 10-0 run to outscore the home team 17-6.
“We have to figure out better ways to score when we’re not turning people over,” Vickers said.
The Tigers improved to 56-3 all-time against current members of the SWAC.
After playing three games in three states in five days, Auburn (10-3) takes an 11-day holiday break before hosting Jackson State Dec. 29 at 1 p.m. CT at Neville Arena.
“We’ve got to figure out a way to play for 40 minutes,” Vickers said. “That’s the biggest thing for us, a way to be consistent for 40. We want to make sure we’re building a foundation in year one of teams that do things the right way day in and day out.”
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on X: @jeff_shearer