AUBURN – The Auburn women's basketball team dropped a heartbreaker, 59-55, to LSU Thursday at Auburn Arena. LSU improved to 13-8 (4-4 SEC), while Auburn fell to 13-8 (2-6 SEC).
"When you look at the stat sheet, we did a lot of really good things," Auburn head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said. "We force them into 25 turnovers. We had 16 steals. We just didn't do enough at certain times of the games to finish out to win the game."
Tyrese Tanner led Auburn in scoring with 17 points, while Hasina Muhammad added 11. Muhammad extended her double-figure scoring streak to 23-consecutive games dating back to the 2011-12 season. Muhammad also added four steals and two assists in the effort.
It was a back-and-forth game as the teams traded shots and the lead six times with 11 ties. Auburn led by as many as seven with 12:30 remaining in the first half, while LSU's biggest lead came at six points with seven seconds remaining in the game.
Auburn forced LSU into 25 turnovers while tallying 16 steals, but was only able to create 18 points off turnovers. Auburn was outrebounded 36-32 and shot just 36.7 percent from the floor compared to LSU's 45.8 percent.
LSU took a 28-26 lead into the locker room at the half, but Auburn came out and tied it at 28 with the first basket of the second half. The home Tigers regained the lead at 38-36 with 12:41 remaining, but LSU grabbed it right back and Auburn couldn't overtake the visitors again, only coming as close as a 44-44 tie with just more than eight minutes to play.
Down 55-52 with 35 seconds to play, LSU went to the line for a one-and-one opportunity, but missed the front end and a rebound from Muhammad gave Auburn the final possession with a shot to tie. A turnover from Ouardad sealed it for LSU and sent the Bengal Tigers home with the win.
LSU's Adrienne Webb plagued Auburn from the start, going 8-of-16 from the floor, including 3-of-6 from beyond the arc. Webb tallied 21 points on the night, while Theresa Plaisance added 16 points and nine rebounds.
Blanche Alverson hit a late 3-pointer, giving her 185 on her career and sole possession of second all-time at Auburn in career 3-pointers. Najat Ouardad tallied five assists, giving her 221 on her career to take 18th all-time at Auburn in career assists.
Auburn returns to action in the first of two road games as it takes on No. 15/13 South Carolina in Columbia, S.C., Sunday at 2 p.m. CT.
INFORMATION SOURCE: Auburn Athletics Dept.
