Cliff Williams | Opelika-Auburn News
Auburn’s Alli Smalley is fouled by Arkansas’ Lyndsay Harris during the Tigers’ 73-58 loss Thursday night.
Jordan Greenleaf was at a loss for words after Auburn’s 73-58 loss to Arkansas on Thursday night at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum.
But she was clear about one thing.
“I don’t know where our head was tonight, but apparently it wasn’t in the game,” said the redshirt junior, who led the team with 16 points and nine rebounds. “They were 1-9, and they beat our butt. That was unacceptable. I don’t know where that came from.”
Neither does Nell Fortner, whose Tigers (12-13, 3-9) lost a second straight game to an SEC team with just one conference win under its belt.
With a team full of young players, Fortner knew there would be some growing pains, but just not this bad, this late in the season.
“I didn’t expect this right now,” the head coach said. “I really felt like we’d be in a better place than we are right now. We’re struggling.”
First it was a loss to Alabama in Tuscaloosa on Sunday. The Crimson Tide came into that game with a 1-9 SEC record. They ended it with a 55-53 win over Auburn.
Now it’s Arkansas, which came in to Thursday night’s game last in the SEC at 1-9 and five games below .500 for the season.
For the Tigers, however, this game wasn’t anywhere near as close as the loss to Alabama. The Razorbacks (10-14, 2-9) were in control after the first 10 minutes.
Arkansas jumped out to a 9-point first-half lead using a 14-4 run midway through to distance themselves from the cold-shooting Tigers, who went almost 2 minutes without a field goal during that stretch.
Auburn cut the lead to 5 going into the locker room on an Alli Smalley layup, but that would be as close as the Tigers would get.
Arkansas came out of the break on a 12-4 run and never looked back. The Razorbacks’ largest lead of the second half was 65-50 with 3:57 to play in the game.
Auburn committed 20 turnovers in the game — 10 in each half — which Arkansas had no trouble turning into points. The Razorbacks scored 22 points off of turnovers, as they shot 50.8 percent from the floor for the game.
“I don’t know if you can even put this on growing pains,” Smalley said. “We just got to have more fight to us and execute the things we work on every day in practice.”
The women have been struggling so much that Fortner decided to shake things up after the Tigers’ loss to Alabama, moving the team to the visiting men’s coaches locker room and not letting them dress in their normal digs.
“We’re just trying to get their attention,” Fortner said. “Every now and then you’ve got to do some things to get their attention. So, we’ll see.
“With the young team, losses just kind of get to your psyche a little bit, but we’ve just got to bounce back. We’ve got to bounce back.”
Four Arkansas players scored in double figures Thursday, with Charity Ford leading the way with 18. Ashley Daniels and C’eira Ricketts scored 14 apiece and Lyndsay Harris added 11.
Freshman Nicolle Thomas was the only other Tiger in double figures, scoring 13 points, including three 3-pointers in the loss. Smalley, Auburn’s leading scorer, was held to 6 points, while 6-foot-7 center KeKe Carrier had just 4 points in 13 minutes.
Auburn will try to “bounce back” Sunday as No. 23 LSU comes to Beard-Eaves. The Tigers won their first meeting in overtime in Baton Rouge, La., knocking off the Bayou Bengals when they were ranked No. 11.
Tipoff for Sunday’s game is slated for 3 p.m.
| 737-2513