GREENVILLE, S.C. – The postseason begins for Auburn women's basketball this week as the Tigers are in Greenville, South Carolina, for the 2024 SEC Tournament.
Auburn, seeded seventh, will face 10-seed Arkansas in the second round at 5 p.m. CT/6 p.m. ET Thursday at Bon Secours Wellness Arena.
The Tigers (19-10, 8-8) look to continue their strong late-season play as they enter the tournament on a three-game winning streak. Auburn finished off the regular season with a 77-74 win at Florida Sunday, led by a huge game from junior Mar'Shaun Bostic and a game-saving block from Honesty Scott-Grayson at the buzzer.
Arkansas (18-13, 6-10) enters the week on a four-game skid. The Razorbacks won a wild regular-season meeting between the teams in Fayetteville, 74-72. In fact, the last four contests between Auburn and Arkansas have been decided by three points or fewer.
ON THE AIR
›› Brit Bowen and Larry DiChiara will have the radio call on AU100 (100.3 FM) beginning at 4:45 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 Courtney Lyle, Carolyn Peck and Brooke Weisbrod calling the action.
LAST TIME OUT
›› Mar'Shaun Bostic put together one of the best all-around games of her career, and Auburn held on in a wild finish for a 77-74 win at Florida on the final day of the regular season.
›› Leading by three with 6.2 seconds to play, Honesty Scott-Grayson missed the second of a two-shot free throw attempt. Florida got the rebound, raced the length of the court and launched a desperation 3-point attempt, but Scott-Grayson blocked the shot from behind as time expired to secure the win.
›› Bostic scored a season-high 18 points and dished out a career-high nine assists to lead the Auburn offensive attack. She was also 8-of-10 at the free throw line. Scott-Grayson overcame second-half foul trouble to finish with 16 points along with five rebounds
›› McKenna Eddings had her second straight game in double figures, scoring 11 points to go along with five rebounds and four steals, both season-highs. Auburn shot a season-high 56% from the field to help overcome a season-high 24 turnovers.
AUBURN IN THE SEC TOURNAMENT
›› This is the 45th appearance in the SEC Tournament for Auburn. The Tigers are 39-42 all-time and own four SEC Tournament titles in 1981, 1987, 1990 and 1997.
›› This is coach Johnnie Harris' third appearance in the SEC Tournament as a head coach. She had been part of 11 previous SEC Tournaments as an assistant coach at Arkansas and Mississippi State. She helped lead MSU to the 2019 tournament title in Greenville, S.C.
›› Auburn is the No. 7 seed for just the second time. The previous time was 1992, when the Tigers went 1-1 in the tournament.
AN AUBURN WIN WOULD...
›› Give Auburn a 20-win season for the first time since 2019 and just the third time in the last 15 years.
›› Be the 997th win in program history.
›› Give Auburn a four-game win streak against SEC opponents for the first time since 2016.
›› Snap a 7-game skid against Arkansas.
›› Be Auburn's first SEC Tournament win since 2020.
AUBURN-ARKANSAS SERIES
›› Auburn is 23-22 all-time against Arkansas, and the Razorbacks hold a 2-1 lead in the SEC Tournament.
›› The last four contests between the teams have been decided by five points or less.
LAST MEETING: Feb. 4, 2024, at Fayetteville
Arkansas 74, Auburn 72
›› Honesty Scott-Grayson had her third straight game with at least 20 points, but a furious fourth-quarter rally came up just short in a 74-72 loss to Arkansas Sunday at Bud Walton Arena.
›› Auburn led by as many as 15 in the second quarter, then saw a huge Arkansas third quarter put the Razorbacks up by double digits. The Tigers tied it with less than a minute to go but could not finish off the comeback.
›› Collins recorded her second double-double of the season with 12 points and 11 rebounds; she also led the Tigers with four steals. Celia Sumbane broke into double figures for the second time with 10 points. The Tigers shot 39.7 percent (27-of-68), slightly better than Arkansas' 38.7 percent night (24-62). But the Razorbacks knocked down seven 3-pointers, two more than Auburn, and made 19 of their 27 free throws.
SCOUTING THE RAZORBACKS
›› Arkansas is 18-13 overall and finished 6-10 in SEC play. The Razorbacks dropped four straight games to end the regular season.
›› The Razorbacks average 70.4 points per game while giving up 68.5.
›› Taliah Scott leads Arkansas with 22.1 points per game and scored 33 against the Tigers in the first meeting, but she has missed the last five games and 11 overall in SEC play.
SCOUTING AUBURN
›› Auburn is 19-10 overall and finished 8-8 in SEC play. The latest ESPN "Bracketology" lists the Tigers as "last four byes" as of March 5.
›› The Tigers have five total road wins this season, the most since winning 10 times on the road in 2018-19.
›› Auburn has three top-30 wins this year, defeating NET No. 10 LSU, No. 25 Washington State, and No. 28 Alabama.
›› The Tigers are 16-1 this season when shooting at least 40% from the field.
›› First-team All-SEC selection Honesty Scott-Grayson scored 15+ points in 15 of 16 SEC games this season and 20+ points 10 times overall, including a stretch of five straight games. She scored a career-high 32 points on Senior Night in a win over Mississippi State. Previously, she matched a then-career high with 31 points vs. No. 1 South Carolina on Feb. 1. 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 18.3 points/game (2nd SEC) and also averages 4.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists. She averaged 20.4 points/game in SEC play (2nd in SEC), and has scored in double figures in 26 out of 28 games she has played this year.
›› JaMya Mingo-Young leads Auburn with 3.8 assists/game, and she is second on the team with 8.9 points/game. She is fifth in the SEC and 40th nationally in assist/turnover ratio (2.2). She is also second in the league in free-throw percentage (85.2%) 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 had the one of the best all-around games of her career in the regular-season finale at Florida, scoring a season-best 18 points and dishing out a career-high 9 assists. She scored a then-season high 17 points on 7-11 shooting vs. Tennessee. She also had a huge game in the opener vs. Jacksonville State with 12 points, 4 assists, 4 steals and 3 rebounds. She then had another big game agains Clemson with 7 points, 4 assists and a career-high 5 steals.
›› Sophomore Sydney Shaw scored a career-high 17 points at UCF and has hit double-figures in seven 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 10 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 3.6 rebounds, and she was SEC Freshman of the Week the opening week of the season after a double-double at Rutgers.
›› Junior college transfer McKenna Eddings had a huge game in the win over Mississippi State, scoring 13 points on 6-of-12 shooting and pulling down a career-high five rebounds, then followed that up with an 11-point, 5-rebound, 4-steal performance at Florida. She averages 4.2 points off the bench and has made 20 3-pointers this year, third-most on the team.
UP NEXT
›› With a win, Auburn would face second-seeded LSU in the SEC Tournament quarterfinal at 5 p.m. CT Friday.
›› With a loss, the Tigers would await postseason selection. The NCAA Selection Show is Sunday, March 17.
Tournament Time: Auburn women face Arkansas in SEC second round
