Auburn coach Nell Fortner looked about as tired as her players after No. 5 Tennessee handed the Tigers a 73-53 loss Sunday.

The Tigers hadn’t seen a team quite like the Volunteers in their 5-1 start to the conference season.

“I think Tennessee is really, really good. I think they’re definitely one of the top-five teams in the country,” Fortner said. “I think they’re playing a style of basketball that’s really tough to guard, wears you out and then they keep bringing players off the bench that keep putting pressure on you.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do to stay in a ballgame with them, that’s for sure.”

The 7,536 fans at Auburn Arena were not treated to a repeat of the last time Tennessee came to Auburn, when a loaded Tigers squad beat a green group of Volunteers at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum for the first time in 12 years.

Sunday, Tennessee’s seasoned roster — which includes many of the same players that lost to Auburn in 2009 — dictated the game from the early going, using its size advantage and transition offense to sink the Tigers.

Tennessee (19-2, 7-0 SEC) outrebounded Auburn, 49-34, including 18 on the offensive glass, and outscored the Tigers, 18-2, on the fast break.

“They’re big. They can get really big on you,” Fortner said. “And it’s hard to see over things and see around. They started switching in their defense, which it’s hard to play against a switching man defense, especially when everybody looks the same as far as their size. Makes it really hard to find shots.”

Auburn (12-8, 5-2) withstood the first barrage from Tennessee and cut its lead to 22-17 on a Blanche Alverson 3-pointer from well beyond the arc with 8:37 to go in the first half.
Tennessee went to its size and speed on a 12-2 run to close out the half, with 6-foot-6 Kelley Cain knocking down three free throws and a shot, and 6-3 Glory Johnson hitting two easy layups in transition.

The Tigers hit only 1-of-13 shots in that stretch and committed five turnovers.

“Any time you go on the road, if you don’t pack your defense and board play you can lose at any given time,” Volunteers coach Pat Summitt said. “And I think our team has finally bought into that…We had a lot of good things from a number of different players. I think our depth has really contributed to the success we’ve had. And also this team is very unselfish and also very, very committed to our defense and our boards.”

Tennessee stretched its lead to 20 in the second half before Auburn ripped off a 16-6 run to cut the margin to 52-42 with 9:56 to go.

But five quick buckets by the Volunteers had the lead back out to 20 and all but ended the game.

“We’re not used to playing teams with that kind of size. They’re long, and when they slowed us down with their press, we kind of lost our flow a little bit,” Auburn guard Alli Smalley said. “We just weren’t knocking down shots when we were getting open looks.”
Shekinna Stricklen, Johnson, Cain and Vicki Baugh, all 6-foot-2 or taller, combined for 52 points and 33 rebounds on the night, with Stricklen (18 points, six rebounds) and Johnson (16 points, 13 rebounds) leading the way.

“I think it was clear we had the size advantage,” Johnson said. “And whenever we use it to the best of our ability, we dominate. Just having everyone fresh, scoring and getting rebounds, it was amazing.”

Smalley and Morgan Toles led the Tigers with 13 points apiece, and Toles added seven assists, while Jordan Greenleaf tallied 10 points and nine rebounds.
Auburn gets a week to recover before playing South Carolina (11-9, 3-4) at home Sunday.

“You learn from games like this,” Fortner said. “You can look at the positives, the run we made in the second half was really good. We’ve got to learn from it: How do we maintain and not lose the momentum that we got?”

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