Auburn v. Rutgers ... ready?

By Mike Szvetitz
Sports Editor, Opelika-Auburn News
Published: March 23, 2009

PISCATAWAY, N.J.—It’s still about an hour and a half until tipoff of the biggest game of the season by far for either Auburn or Rutgers.

We’ll be here “not live blogging” the game, but will provide updates throughout the game. You can watch along on ESPN2 and read along here.

While we wait for the game to start, you can read all my stories that appeared in today’s paper. ....

Read about how big tonight’s game is here.

Read about how AU women’s head coach Nell Fortner wouldn’t give me the scoop on the Tigers’ gameplan here. For the record, I don’t blame her.

FINAL: Rutgers 80, Auburn 52. We’ll be back later with a full recap.

3:27 Second Half, Rutgers 73, Auburn 48: The Tigers aren’t giving up, but neither is Rutgers. The early lead the Scarlet Knights built is just too much for Auburn to chip away at. Every time they get on a run, Rutgers puts an end to it with a big basket of its own.

7:52 Second Half, Rutgers 62, Auburn 40: Epiphanny Prince made a layup and was fouled at the 10:10 mark. She made the free throw, putting Rutgers up by 20. Then, she made another layup to make it a 22-point Scarlet Knight lead. Auburn is reeling.

11:50 Second Half, Rutgers 53, Auburn 38: Alli Smalley jumper with 15:24 left got Auburn to within 10 points, 46-36. But Rutgers scored 7 of the game’s next 9 points to keep their double-digit lead intact.

16:53 Second Half, Rutgers 45, Auburn 32: DeWanna Bonner has all 4 of Auburn’s second-half points. KeKe Carrier started the second half for the Tigers at center, as they’re trying to go big to match Rutgers’ size.

HALFTIME STATS: Auburn 32.4 percent shooting, Rugters 50 percent. Heather Zurich leads the Scarlet Knights with 12 points, while DeWanna Bonner has 9 points for the Tigers.

HALFTIME, Rutgers 43, Auburn 28: That was the best first half of basketball a No. 7 seed could play against a No. 2 seed. Rutgers came out and just punched Auburn in the mouth. It took the Tigers about 13 minutes to recover. Twenty minutes left.

4:10 First Half, Rutgers 38, Auburn 20: DeWanna Bonner’s starting to get hot. She scored 8 of the last 10 points for Auburn—two 3s and a nice running layup. But just when the Tigers make a run, there’s Kia Vaughn to take back the momentum. It’s loud in this place, did I mention that?

7:30 First Half, Rutgers 29, Auburn 13: DeWanna Bonner just scored her first basket of the night, a 3-pointer from the left wing. Chantel Hilliard has three fouls, Trevesha Jackson has 2. Auburn’s getting bullied. That’s the gameplan to take the Tigers out of their rhythm. And it’s working.

10:59 First Half, Rutgers 22, Auburn 6: KeKe Carrier, seeing her first first-half minutes in like forever, just scored to give Auburn its third field goal of the night. This is the biggest deficit Auburn’s had to face all year. Auburn is shooting 20 percent now.

11:48 First Half, Rutgers 22 , Auburn 4: Auburn’s Alli Smalley fouled Heather Zurich on a 3-point attempt at the 13:15 mark. Zurich made the shot, then the free throw for a 4-point play. Things are going from bad to worse for the Tigers. Even when they make a basket, like Sherell Hobbs did, they were called for a 3-second violation, whipping out the basket. Brittany Ray just hit another 3.

15:22 First Half, Rutgers 13, Auburn 2: It’s loud in the Louis Brown Athletic Center. And Rutgers is taking full advantage of the home court, well, advantage. Auburn looks out of sync. Trevesha Jackson’s jumper at about the 16-minute mark was the only offense the Tigers have been able to produce. Auburn has made one out of six shots. That’s 16.7 percent. Ouch.

17:32 First Half, Rutgers 9, Auburn 0: Rutgers scored about a millisecond into the game after winning the tip. Then, Epiphanny Prince blocked an Alli Smalley shot and went coast to coast for a layup. Then an jumper by Heather Zurich for a basket. Then, Brittany Ray hit a 3. All Rutgers. All the time. Fortner called timeout. That’s the only thing Auburn could do in the opening 2 1/2 minutes.

3:00 until Tipoff: Auburn’s in their white jerseys, as the home team, even though the Tigers are playing at Rutgers. The higher seed is home, but the Tigers are still sitting on the away bench. Confused? We are, too. What sport are we watching again?
Rutgers is wearing red. Scarlet, if you will.

STARTING LINEUPS:
Rutgers:
No. 1 Khadijah Rushdan, 5-9, Jr., G
No. 10 Epiphanny Prince, 5-9, Jr., G
No. 35 Brittany Ray, 5-9, Jr., G
No. 21 Heather Zurich, 6-1, Sr., F
No. 15 Kia Vaughn, 6-4, Sr., C

Auburn:
No. 5 Alli Smalley, 5-8, So., G
No. 24 DeWanna Bonner, 6-4, Sr., G
No. 12 Sherell Hobbs, 5-10, Sr., G
No. 44 Whitney Boddie, 5-9, Sr., G
No. 1 Trevesha Jackson, 6-0, Sr., F