AU WOMEN'S HOOPS: Tigers blast Lady Vols in front of record crowd

Someone get DeWanna Bonner a parking pass.

More than an hour before No. 6 Auburn’s 82-68 victory Sunday over No. 10 Tennessee, Bonner was left as flummoxed as the majority of the record-setting 12,067 fans who made it out for the Tigers’ biggest win in more than 20 years.

Click here for slideshow

“I couldn’t even find a parking spot,” Bonner said.

Fortunately, Bonner made it to Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum with time to spare.

Just in time for arguably the biggest game of her already storied career.

Bonner racked up a career-high 35 points, nine rebounds and six steals to help boost the Tigers’ record to 20-0 against a team they hadn’t beaten in 12 years.

“DeWanna Bonner is a big-time player,” coach Nell Fortner said. “Big-time players play big-time basketball in big-time games.”

Basketball games in football-looney Auburn — both on the men’s and women’s side — don’t get much bigger than Sunday’s.

Lines of 30 to 40 people stretched from ticket windows as early as three hours before the 2 p.m. tip. Inside, empty seats were non-existent, as a hundreds of fans were forced to stand along the upper walkway.

The 40-year-old arena’s listed capacity is 10,500, but Auburn officials removed a partition in the upper deck at the South end of the arena to reveal 1,500 more seats. The 12,067 mark shattered the Auburn women’s previous record of 7,150 and set a new Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum record, for both men’s and women’s, since the building was renovated in 1997.

“For Auburn,” Fortner said, “it truly was a magical day.”

How Auburn snapped a 16-game losing streak to the heavyweights of the SEC involved little to no magic or surprise. The Tigers did it the same way they have throughout their best start since the 1988-89 season.

With speed and poise from a starting lineup chock full of seniors.

Bonner, in her 118th game as a Tiger, displayed both from start to finish.

While the Tigers came out a bit jumpy and struggled with Tennessee’s zone defense, Bonner picked off a pass for an early breakaway layup before an onslaught of unmatched slashes to the basket, which largely resulted in trips to the foul line. Bonner sunk eight of her nine free-throw attempts on her way to 14 first-half points, tag-teaming with Alli Smalley’s 11, as the Tigers took a 31-26 lead into the second half.

“She is obviously very, very aggressive,” said Tennessee coach Pat Summitt, who came into Sunday’s game two wins shy of 1,000 for her career. “Her skills are so much better now.”

In the second half, Bonner and the Tigers thrived off lazy Lady Vols passes and made them pay with their speedy transition offense, paced by point guard Whitney Boddie, who finished with 17 points and nine assists. Auburn nabbed seven of its 12 steals and forced 10 turnovers to help push its lead to as large as 24.

A 14-0 Lady Vols run made the final result closer than it appeared, but it was clear that Auburn’s performance against one of the most established programs in college basketball will catch the attention of those still on the fence about its status among the nation’s elite.

“I think it validates it for more people out there,” Fortner said. “I think it’s more for the people that don’t know more about Auburn. We don’t have the history that Tennessee has. I think it makes people sit up and take notice that ‘maybe they are for real.’”

The 12,067 in attendance were certainly convinced.

With 24 seconds remaining, chants of “undefeated” reverberated through the arena. When the buzzer sounded, Auburn players sprinted to the newly established student section under the South basket for an impromptu dance party.

“We started from nothing,” Bonner said, “and now the crowd just keeps growing,”

agribble@oanow.com | 737-2561

Read Andrew Gribble's blog here.