AU WOMEN'S HOOPS: Tigers win SEC Championship

The Auburn women’s basketball team could have gotten this out of the way a game or two ago.

It just wouldn’t have been as fun.

Unfortunately for Arkansas, it had to happen at its expense.

“If I was them,” Trevesha Jackson said, “I would have been scared.”

The Tigers used three distinct sources of motivation to completely trample Arkansas, 94-57, before 5,616 fans Sunday at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum.

The win clinched Auburn’s first outright SEC title since 1989, sent its four seniors out in grandiose style and sent a booming message to those across women’s college basketball.

“We wanted to come out here and put our foot down and not only win the SEC, but also make a point,” senior Whitney Boddie said. “You know, we don’t get a whole lot of respect. We’re trying to get a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, we’re trying to show teams we’re for real.”

Consider it done.

Since the last time they ended a home game with a ring-around-the-rosie dance party at center court — their blowout victory over Tennessee in January — the Tigers hadn’t exactly played the part of a dominant, No. 1-seed deserving team.

Yes, Auburn still went 6-2 in that stretch and even clinched a share of the SEC title on the way, but the victories elicited a number of tense moments and the losses magnified the team’s flaws.

Tiger players shrugged off their apparent “lost edge,” pointing out that they now had a big old bull's-eye on their backs, which brought the best of its opponents night after night. And that wasn’t supposed to come to an end Sunday when Arkansas, winners of five straight, came to
Auburn.

But it definitely did. And quickly.

“We wanted to come out today and have a good start,” senior Sherell Hobbs said. “I think we did that.”

Just three minutes after the opening tip, Auburn was up 9-1. Six minutes later, it was a 15-point lead. By halftime, Auburn had the most points for a half by any SEC team in a conference game this season with a 54-32 lead.

The biggest number in what senior DeWanna Bonner described as the best half of her career?

Zero, as in the number of Auburn’s turnovers.

“That’s awesome,” Bonner said. “That’s a record, probably. That was just great.”

The second half merely served as the opening act to the grand finale, when Auburn’s four seniors — Bonner, Boddie, Hobbs and Jackson — were honored with a video montage, walked arm-in-arm with their families and presented with a personalized graphic collage.

But first, they had to be taken out of the game one last time.

The quartet entered all at once with 3:42 to play and were taken out one by one thereafter.

First out was Auburn High product Jackson, the team’s soft-spoken bruiser inside who waved and smiled on her way to the bench.

Next was Hobbs, who followed suit with an ear-to-ear grin and plenty of waving.

Before Boddie swapped places with protégé Morgan Jennings, she hugged each of her teammates as they stood around the key.

“That was tight,” Boddie said. “I don’t know how else to describe it. It was good stuff.”

The odds-on favorite for SEC player of the year, Bonner, was saved for last, as she followed Boddie’s lead, hugging her teammates before exiting with 1:49 on the clock.

“That’s where it became very overwhelming to me of exactly what was going on,” said coach Nell Fortner, a freshly sliced net around her neck. “We’re going to win this game and these seniors are going to go out having done that.”

Even when the circle of reporters surrounding her dispersed, Fortner couldn’t stop talking.

Days like Sunday don’t come around too often.

“Wow,” she said. “Wow, wow.”

agribble@oanow.com | 737-2561

The stars: Auburn’s four seniors combined for 60 points, 24 rebounds and 12 assists in their final game at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum.
Arkansas’ best: Whitney Jones led the Razorbacks with 23 points.
It was over when…: Auburn’s starters were introduced shortly before the 2 p.m. tip.
Back so soon: Freshman Chantel Hilliard played 14 minutes and scored 11 points one game after sustaining a scary knee injury.