The reputation Alli Smalley established over the first two years of her Auburn career has defenses feeling like they have her figured out.

There’s just been one major hurdle in completely shutting down Auburn’s leading scorer game after game.

The 3-point reliant Smalley is a thing of the past. Her game has completely morphed this season in response to how teams continuously smother her on the perimeter.

“Defenses are overplaying me a lot and they’re out there on me and eliminating my outside shot,” Smalley said. “It’s really opening up lanes for me to get to the basket.”

Smalley expects more of the same today at Alabama, the team she torched for a season-high 27 points in Auburn’s eighth straight victory over the Tide in January.

Tip is set for 2 p.m. at Coleman Coliseum with SportSouth (Channel 34 in Lee County) broadcasting the game.

All eyes, as usual, will be focused on Smalley, who continues to find ways to score, even when teams think they have her figured out.

“People are just focused on her so much,” coach Nell Fortner said. “You don’t have to worry about a DeWanna Bonner or a Whitney Boddie. She’s our primary scorer so they’re playing some lockdown defense on her.”

That lockdown defense has caused some major statistical shifts for Smalley in a one-year span.

As Auburn’s fourth-most prolific scorer with an 11.1 average in the 2008-09 season, Smalley hit 68 3-pointers and 73 2-pointers at a 44.5 percent success rate. This year, Smalley is just 39-of-129 (30.2 percent) on 3-pointers, but has made up for that by hitting 91-of-196 (46.4) of her 2-point attempts.

Those extra shots haven’t come easy, either.

There might not be a player in the SEC who works harder for her shot than Smalley, who is constantly running back and forth across the court — typically with a defender glued to her hip. When she attempts a 3-pointer, it’s usually either the result of a designed screen or her own, improved ability to create her own shot.

It has been nothing like last year, when defenders constantly crashed on Bonner, while Smalley was able to reap the benefits with a number of open 3’s.

“It’s definitely a different offensive situation for her than it was last year,” Fortner said. “I’m not surprised that her percentages are down. She’s taking a lot more shots and carrying the scoring load.”

The current situation has prompted Smalley to reach back in the past a bit and bring back her trademark, one-handed floater.

She used that shot to score multiple times in Auburn’s win last week against No. 9 Georgia and sunk another late against South Carolina on Thursday. It’s something she practices with assistant coach Ayesha Whitfield while the rest of the team is practicing their free throws, but it’s certainly not anything Auburn’s staff introduced to her.

“She came with that. We didn’t teach her that,” Fortner said. “That’s just being able to play basketball. She’s got that shot down pretty nice.”

Fortner said she doesn’t envision Smalley, who has taken at least 105 more shots than everyone else on the roster, carrying the load like this next season. Shooters Blanche Alverson and Nicolle Thomas will have a year of experience to work with and incoming freshman Camille Glymph can “shoot from half-court,” Fortner said.

“She’ll have a little help,” Fortner said.

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