It was a must-win game.
And Auburn won it.
After three frustrating shots at a seventh Southeastern Conference win, the AU women’s basketball team came through Sunday. The Tigers outlasted Arkansas for a 74-57 win, preserving their NCAA Tournament hopes.
But before the 65-team NCAA tourney field is selected, AU has one more chance to impress the selection committee.
Auburn (19-10, 7-7 SEC) is the No. 6 seed in the SEC Tournament, which starts Thursday in Nashville, Tenn.
The Tigers will play a rematch with Arkansas, the No. 11 seed.
“Talk about familiarity,” Auburn coach Nell Fortner said. “That’s a good thing. … But it’ll be a very, very tough game with Arkansas.”
Sunday’s game wasn’t a pushover, either.
The Razorbacks (17-12, 2-12) kept things close for the first 30 minutes. But Auburn mounted a 20-3 run over a seven-minute span late in the second half to put the game away.
Auburn forward Jordan Greenleaf said the Tigers were inspired in part by a tongue-lashing from Fortner.
“It was a little chew-out from Coach,” Greenleaf said. “Coach kind of got onto us in the huddle.”
Fortner said she kept things simple in her pep talk.
“It was just, ‘Come on: This is it,’” she said.
But the speech made an impact. The run — which included 6 points from forward DeWanna Bonner and 4 each from Alli Smalley and Sherell Hobbs — put the game away.
“I just thought we responded well,” Fortner said.
Pleasing their coach was hardly the only thing on the Tigers’ minds. Every AU player knew the Tigers needed a win Sunday to stay in contention for an NCAA Tournament berth.
AU’s .500 record in SEC play is the team’s best conference finish in four seasons under Fortner. That could give the Tigers their best chance yet of making an NCAA tourney for the first time under Fortner, despite a No. 64 ranking in the RPI, according to www.collegerpi.com.
“I think we made a statement,” said Hobbs, who was one of four AU starters in double figures Sunday, with 16 points. “We’ve been putting in work. We overcame adversity. We played good games in the (nonconference) season, and we stayed at .500 in the conference.”
Smalley led the Tigers with 17 points. Bonner had 15, while Greenleaf added 14 points and 10 rebounds.
AU forward Trevesha Jackson, an Auburn High graduate, didn’t play Saturday due to an illness. An Auburn spokesperson said Jackson’s ailment wasn’t related to a concussion suffered in Thursday’s loss to Vanderbilt.
cmickle@oanow.com | 737-2561
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