AUBURN, Ala. – It's the final home game of the season for Auburn women's basketball as the Tigers host Mississippi State at 7 p.m. CT Thursday at Neville Arena.
The Tigers (17-10, 6-8) look for their record sixth home SEC win in Neville Arena and to build off a 57-41 victory over Texas A&M Sunday afternoon. Mississippi State (20-9, 7-7) comes into Thursday's game off an 87-75 loss at Alabama Sunday.
Doors open at 6 p.m. CT. Tickets are available in advance by visiting AUBTix.com and at the Neville Arena ticket office on gameday.
SENIOR NIGHT
›› Five Auburn women's basketball student-athletes will be honored as part of Senior Night prior to Thursday's game. Kionna Gaines, Carsen McFadden, Taylen Collins, JaMya Mingo-Young and Honesty Scott-Grayson will be recognized in a pregame ceremony, set to begin at approximately 6:35 p.m.
›› Student manager Gustavo de Souza and practice player Wright Self will also be recognized during the ceremony.
PROMOTIONS
›› Auburn Tumbler: Free for first 200 students
›› Attendance Record Poster: Free for all fans while supplies last
›› Halftime Performance: Recycled Teenagers
›› Post-Game Autographs: All Auburn players will be signing autographs
ON THE AIR
›› Brit Bowen and Larry DiChiara will have the radio call on AU100 (100.3 FM) beginning at 6:45 p.m. CT. The broadcast can also be heard on AuburnTigers.com and the Auburn Athletics app.
›› Thursday's game can be seen on SEC Network + with Brad Law and JJ Jackson calling the action.
LAST TIME OUT
›› Auburn's familiar formula – turnovers and transition – carried the Tigers to a 57-41 victory over Texas A&M on a record-setting Sunday at Neville Arena.
›› With 3,760 in attendance, Auburn broke the program's season record, which now stands at 52,351, with one home game remaining.
›› The Tigers forced 29 turnovers, just two shy of the program record (in SEC play) of 31 set in 2013 vs. Mississippi State, leading to a 22-10 advantage in points off turnovers. Auburn outscored the Aggies 18-5 in fastbreak points, tallying nearly a third of its points in transition.
›› Taylen Collins, JaMya Mingo-Young and Sydney Shaw each scored 10 points to lead the Tigers. Honesty Scott-Grayson added nine points and Kaitlyn Duhon scored eight. Auburn limited all of Texas A&M's scorers to single digits, holding the Aggies to their lowest point total of the season.
AN AUBURN WIN WOULD...
›› Give Auburn its sixth SEC home win of the year, which would be the second-most in program history and most since moving into Neville Arena.
›› Be Auburn's 14th home win of the season, one shy of the arena record.
›› Snap an 11-game losing streak to Mississippi State.
›› Be the 995th win in program history.
›› Be Auburn's fifth of the season over a top-50 NET opponent.
AUBURN-MISSISSIPPI STATE SERIES
›› This is the 62nd meeting between Auburn and Mississippi State in women's basketball. Auburn leads the series 35-26, but State has won the last 11 meetings.
LAST MEETING: Jan. 19, 2023, at Starkville
Mississippi State 72, Auburn 58
›› Auburn fought back from a 15-point deficit to take a third-quarter lead, but Mississippi State pulled away in the final 10 minutes for a 72-58 Bulldog win Thursday night at Humphrey Coliseum.
›› The Tigers shot 80 percent in the third quarter to turn an eight-point halftime deficit into a three-point lead, heading to the fourth quarter tied 47-all. State opened the fourth on a 7-0 run, Auburn would fight foul trouble yet still get as close as five with two minutes to play, but the Tigers could not close the gap as MSU made several free throws in the closing seconds.
›› Honesty Scott-Grayson added 12 points, and Sydney Shaw had nine. Mar'Shaun Bostic was a spark off the bench, scoring eight points along with three steals, three blocks and three rebounds.
SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS
›› Mississippi State is 20-9 overall, 7-7 in SEC play, but the Bulldogs have lost four straight coming into Thursday's contest.
›› The Bulldogs average 75.9 points per game while holding opponents to 64.8.
›› Jerkaila Jordan leads State in scoring with 16.1 points/game. Jessika Carter averages a double-double with 15.2 points and 10.4 rebounds. And Lauren Park-Lane is second in the SEC in assists with 6.2 per game.
SCOUTING AUBURN
›› Auburn is 17-10 overall, 6-8 in SEC play. The latest ESPN "Bracketology" lists the Tigers as "last four in" as of Feb. 27.
›› The Tigers have four total road wins this season, the most since winning 10 times on the road in 2018-19.
›› Auburn has four top-40 wins this year, defeating NET No. 9 LSU, No. 25 Washington State, No. 29 Alabama and No. 39 Texas A&M.
›› The Tigers are 14-1 this season when shooting at least 40% from the field.
›› Graduate student Honesty Scott-Grayson has scored 15+ points in 13 of 14 SEC games this season and 20+ nine times overall, including a stretch of five straight games. She matched a career-high with 31 points vs. No. 1 South Carolina on Feb. 1. It was the third 30+ point game of her career and her fifth game with at least 20 points this season. She followed that up with a 27-point performance at Arkansas, then a 24-point night at Missouri. She was named SEC Player of the Week after a 21-point performance in the win over LSU, then matched that output with 21 in the win over Georgia. She leads the team with 17.8 points/game (3rd SEC) and also averages 4.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists. She averages 19.9 points/game in SEC play (2nd in SEC), and has scored in double figures in 24 out of 26 games she has played this year.
›› JaMya Mingo-Young leads Auburn with 3.8 assists/game, and she is second on the team with 9.3 points/game. She is fifth in the SEC and 39th nationally in assist/turnover ratio (2.2). She is also third in the league in free-throw percentage (84.2%) and made 29 consecutive free throws from the UAB game Dec. 3 until finally missing at Texas A&M Jan. 7. Mingo-Young equaled a season-high with 16 points at LSU, scoring all 16 in the second half in a return to her home state. She also had 16 points against Clemson, hitting 9-of-11 free throw attempts, then matched her scoring output with 16 against Norfolk State and tied an Auburn record going 12-for-12 at the free-throw line. She made the highlight-reel play of the season to clinch the win over LSU, stealing the ball from Angel Reese and drawing a foul with 10 seconds to play and Auburn leading by 2, then sinking both free throws to secure the win.
›› Senior Taylen Collins scored a season-best 19 points and had 11 rebounds in the win over Kentucky for her third double-double of the year. Collins had a huge second half to spark the comeback win over UL-Lafayette on Nov. 9 with all nine of her points and 8 of 14 rebounds coming after halftime, and she had a then-season high 17 points vs. Alabama State. She recorded her first Auburn double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds vs. Alabama A&M, then got her first in SEC play with 12 points and 11 rebounds at Arkansas. She averages 8.3 points and a team-leading 6.5 rebounds.
›› Junior Mar'Shaun Bostic scored a season-high 17 points on 7-11 shooting vs. Tennessee. She had a huge game in the opener vs. Jacksonville State with 12 points, 4 assists, 4 steals and 3 rebounds. She then had another huge game agains Clemson with 7 points, 4 assists and a career-high 5 steals. Another big game for her came against Georgia when she had 4 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 5 steals.
›› Sophomore Sydney Shaw scored a career-high 17 points at UCF and has hit double-figures in six games. Shaw also led the Tigers with 15 points in the Alabama A&M win and scored 11 against Clemson. Shaw knocked down two key 3-pointers in the second half to help the Tigers pull away from Texas A&M; she shared the team lead with 10 points. She is fourth on the team with 6.3 points/game.
›› Sophomore Kaitlyn Duhon started the season off with a bang, scoring 13 points along with 3 rebounds and 2 steals in the opener vs. JSU. She showed off her speed against Clemson, especially late in the first half, as she scored 10 points with 3 rebounds and 3 steals. She swiped a career-high 5 steals in just 10 minutes of action vs. Alabama State, and she has started eight games.
›› Freshman Savannah Scott has seen a resurgence since moving back into the starting lineup vs. Alabama. For the season, she averages 4.9 points and 3.4 rebounds, and she was SEC Freshman of the Week the opening week of the season after a double-double at Rutgers.
SHUT IT DOWN
›› Auburn's defense has been among the best in the SEC so far this year. In 14 SEC games, Auburn is holding opponents an average of 11.9 points below their season scoring average. Auburn's scoring defense is second in the league in SEC games at 61.9, behind only top-ranked South Carolina (57.0).
›› The biggest example was Auburn's home win over No. 7 LSU where the visiting Tigers - at the time the nation's top scoring team - were held to 62 points, their lowest total of the season and nearly 27 points below their season average (as of 2/27).
›› Eight SEC opponents have been held at least 10 points below their season average - LSU (26.5 and 17.5), Vanderbilt (15.8), Georgia (15.3), South Carolina (11.0), Missouri (11.5), Kentucky (15.5) and Texas A&M (27.6).
PACKING THE HOUSE
›› With one game left, Auburn has set a new total season attendance record for women's basketball with 52,351 fans through the gates at Neville Arena this season.
›› Neville Arena saw three of its four all-time largest women's basketball crowds in the first month of the 2024 SEC season.
›› Auburn set a Neville Arena record when 7,720 fans filled the stands for the Tigers' upset win over No. 7/4 LSU on Jan. 14; it was the second-largest women's basketball crowd in Auburn history - on Jan. 25, 2009, a crowd of 12,067 packed Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum as the Tigers defeated No. 10 Tennessee 82-68 with the Lady Vols fresh off the 2008 national title.
›› With 7,720 vs. LSU this year and 12,067 vs. Tennessee in 2009, the two largest crowds in Auburn women's basketball history have seen the Tigers defeat the defending national champions.
›› Another huge crowd of 6,075 filed into Neville Arena as the Tigers retired DeWanna Bonner's No. 24 prior to a 78-65 win over Alabama on Jan. 21. That was the third-largest Auburn women's basketball crowd at Neville Arena and ranks 12th all-time.
›› On Feb. 1, 4,814 fans were in attendance as the Tigers took on No. 1 South Carolina; it was the fourth-biggest crowd at Neville for women's hoops.
UP NEXT
›› Auburn closes out the 2023-24 regular season on the road with a Sunday morning showdown at Florida. Game time is 11 a.m. CT at the O'Connell Center in Gainesville.
Senior Night: Auburn hosts Mississippi State in home finale
