Auburn Women’s Basketball Upsets LSU
Auburn Women's Basketball
The Auburn women’s basketball team entered Sunday 0-3 in SEC play. The defending champion No. 7 LSU Tigers had just one loss on the season. An Auburn women’s basketball-record 7,720 fans packed the stands in Neville Arena.
Auburn head coach Johnnie Harris said to her team before the game: I don’t know if these fans are going to be here for you or to watch LSU, but let’s put on a show so they come back.
Auburn gave its fans the theatric ending they wanted as they pulled off the 67-62 upset over LSU.
The game came down to the final minute and one steal: Auburn guard JaMya Mingo-Young took the ball from LSU star Angel Reese.
“We guarded that play all week,” Harris said. “We knew she was going to drive it. Mingo helped in and got the steal. They were prepared for that, we worked on it the last three days. She’s a defensive-minded player. She’s all about toughness. There was no denying her there. She timed it just right.”
The refs called a foul on Reese and the resulting foul shots put LSU out of reach.
Harris said the Tigers had scouted Reese all week, determining how she would move depending on how she caught a ball.
Auburn got off to a hot start, leading 23-15 at the end of the first quarter. But LSU roared back in the second quarter, eventually grabbing a 33-30 lead.
But graduate student Honesty Scott-Grayson seemed to always find a way to respond. She said this game was personal, as she played for LSU head coach Kim Mulkey at Baylor.
“It was super personal for me,” Scott-Grayson said. “Coach Mulkey, I played for her my freshman year. Things didn’t go well. I don’t want to get too much into that. But I’ve been waiting for this moment, and it came, and so I’m embracing it.”
Scott-Grayson scored 21 points and grabbed five rebounds, while Mingo-Young posted 13 points and five assists.
Auburn limited star Louisville transfer Hailey Van Lith to going 1-9 from the field in, far worse than her 42.4% field goal rate on the season.
Reese ended with 24 points and 11 rebounds.
After the game, Harris got on the microphone to speak to the crowd. She thanked them for their support and asked them to come back and continue to support the Auburn women’s basketball team.
“I’m proud for (my team) to be able to play in a crowd like this and I’m happy that this crowd was able to see them play,” Harris said in the post-game press conference. “Because hopefully they see what they’re missing and that they’re a missing piece, like when you have a crowd like that, it was so loud in here and you could see that they were behind us.”
Harris said the Auburn team still has things to work on, but they are on their way to becoming an excellent women’s basketball team.
The Auburn Tigers return to the hardcourt Thursday at Vanderbilt (16-2, 3-1 SEC). Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m. on SEC Network+.
