Marvin Gentry-USA Today Sports
Auburn blows past UCF
AUBURN, ALA. – Honesty Scott-Grayson’s fourth consecutive 20-point game leads Auburn to a dominant win.
“It just means that I’m growing individually as a player,” Scott-Grayson said. “I just try to take the shots that are given to me and try not to force it too much and let the game come to me.”
The Auburn Tigers (6-2) knocked off the UCF Knights (6-1) at home in Neville Arena today in an 86-46 blowout.
“I thought we came out and imposed our will, played our style of basketball,” Auburn head coach Johnnie Harris said. “The last game, I didn’t feel like they played hard enough, and I didn’t feel like they played our style of basketball. So we challenged them, and I thought we came out and did that tonight.”
“I’ve been waiting on that. I let them know what (the effort vs. Little Rock) looked like, and I let them know that’s not us. That’s not our style of play. Just trying to instill in them, it’s not just what we do, it’s who we are. We have to be that every day, every possession. I thought we made a big step forward today.”
Auburn had a season-high 51 rebounds against the Knights.
“That was another challenge for them because we haven’t been rebounding well,” Harris said.
“UALR outrebounded us, so I challenged them. I sent three people to the board and another to the free-throw line to grab anything that was loose in there. We really wanted to crash the board today, that was an emphasis.”
Auburn dominated UCF in a wide variety of categories. Auburn had 26 points from turnovers to UCF’s 14, 42 points in the paint to UCF’s 24, 13 second chance points to UCF’s nine, 23 fast break points to UCF’s seven, and 33 bench points to UCF’s 17.
“One of our keys to the game was getting the ball in the paint,” Harris said. “We wanted to flip the floor, continue with our dribble-drive offense, our motion offense, and whatever we were running. We wanted to continue it until we could get downhill and get it into the paint and either shoot it or kick it out for a three or a short jumper.”
This was Auburn’s best defensive performance so far this season in terms of points given up and the third time that Auburn held an opponent under 50 points.
“Hopefully we’ll grow from it,” Harris said about the team’s defensive performance. “I felt like every guard came out and played the way we wanted to play and pressured the ball. They denied the next pass away. They’re going to catch the ball, but when we make them catch the ball 30-35 feet instead of catching it right on the three-point line, that helps our post defense.”
Honesty Scott-Grayson led Auburn in scoring with 22 points. Aicha Coulibaly led Auburn in rebounds with 12 and assists with four, as well as scoring 17 points for her second double-double of the year.
Laila Jewett and Taylor Gibson led UFC in points with nine a piece, as they did not have a single player score double-digits. Destiny Thomas led the Knights in rebounds with eight, followed closely by Rachel Ranke who grabbed six. UCF did not record a single assist.
Auburn will be back in action on Sunday, December 11 th when they welcome the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns into Neville Arena. Tip-off is set for 2:00 p.m. C.T.
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