Auburn’s women’s basketball team ended its losing streak with a 71-58 victory over Missouri on Thursday night in Columbia, Missouri. The win marks Auburn’s first road conference win this season.
Kaitlyn Duhon led Auburn with 19 points, seven rebounds, and four steals. This is the second consecutive game in which Duhon has been the team’s top scorer. Khady Leye contributed 13 points and Harissoum Coulibaly added 11. Mya Petticord also scored nine points, making three shots from beyond the arc.
Auburn forced Missouri into 30 turnovers, which they converted into 29 points. Despite Missouri shooting over 57 percent from the field and maintaining an accuracy above 60 percent for most of the game, their high number of turnovers limited their scoring opportunities. Auburn attempted 34 more shots than Missouri and made eight three-pointers—its highest total in SEC play this year.
Auburn head coach Larry Vickers commented on the team’s performance: “I thought overall our intensity was pretty good,” he said. “We’ve got to close basketball games better, but overall, it’s so hard to win a game on the road in the SEC, so we should be happy to get one today.
“I’m proud of them. We do a good job playing with leads, that gives us a lot more confidence. I’m super happy for this group. It’s so possible to go 0-16 in this league, and we’ve managed to win three. Hopefully we can get a couple more before the end of the year.”
Auburn finished with just 10 turnovers—a season low—which resulted in only seven points for Missouri off giveaways.
The visiting Tigers established an early lead by forcing 12 turnovers in the first quarter alone and led by as many as 18 points early in the third quarter after back-to-back three-pointers from Petticord. Auburn maintained at least a ten-point lead throughout the second half.
Missouri was led by Grace Slaughter with 19 points and Jordana Reisma with ten.
Auburn will return home for its final two regular-season games, starting Monday night against No. 24 Georgia at Neville Arena.
