Morgan Toles got the ball on the right elbow, gave a shoulder shiver and drove hard to her left, navigating through the mass of bodies stacked up in the lane and banking in a layup with english and a foul on the shot to boot.

Toles calmly finished off the 3-point play at the foul line to put the Tigers up with 2:10 to go, just as she calmly scored a career-high 21 points — including the last 9 of the game — as Auburn beat South Carolina, 54-47, in front of 3,110 fans at Auburn Arena on Sunday.

“I knew we weren’t hitting a lot of shots. We weren’t really getting a lot of good looks either,” Toles said. “Coming off the on-ball screens they were covering up the shooters, and left me open, so I just took it.”

The sophomore guard’s 9-point outburst came at the most opportune time possible for the Tigers (13-8, 6-2 SEC).

South Carolina (12-10, 4-5) had fallen behind by as many as 11 in the second half before a 15-3 run staked the Gamecocks to their first lead of the game with 8:36 to go.

The Gamecocks led 49-47 on an Ashley Bruner layup with 5:40 left before Toles took matters into her own hands.

First came two free throws to knot the game up on the Tigers’ next trip down the floor.

Then, after 3 minutes of offensive inaction by both teams, came the 3-point play that Auburn coach Nell Fortner called “probably the play of the game.”

Then Toles hit a runner in the lane with 49 seconds to go, giving the Tigers a 5-point lead.

Then, after a Jassany Williams steal, Toles sank two more free throws to put a bow on her 21-point performance and help the Tigers avoid their first losing streak in SEC play this season.

“She had to (step up),” Fortner said. “Passing lanes were shut down. South Carolina just wasn’t going to let Alli (Smalley) or Blanche (Alverson) touch the ball.

“She had to take shots.”

Toles showed off her flair for points in bunches earlier in the game, converting another 3-point play with 3.9 seconds to go in the first half to send the Tigers into the break up 26-19.

She also added two quick buckets in the first 1:19 of the second half, extending Auburn’s lead to 9 and accounting for 7 points in 83 seconds.

“Any time we needed a big basket, she came through,” said Smalley, who finished with 11 points. “She was scoring some huge baskets and knocking them down. But we’re used to that from her.”

Auburn extended its second-half lead to 11 on a Tyrese Tanner putback with 14:25 to go before South Carolina made its run, thanks to a healthy contribution from Bruner, its 6-foot sophomore forward.

She scored 11 of her 15 points for the game over the next 8:45, as the Gamecocks went on a 20-7 run to take a 2-point lead.

“We were just having a hard time defending (Bruner),” Fortner said. “We started bringing a little bit of help down there on her, but she got hot and really turned them around.”

Fortunately for Fortner and the Tigers, Toles got hot right after, lifting Auburn into a tie for second with Georgia in the SEC at the halfway point of the conference season.

“I’m just happy to get the win,” Fortner said. “ It wasn’t a pretty ballgame. I never felt like we got into much of an offensive flow. I’ll give South Carolina some credit, they shut down some shooters, and really got on us tough.

“But I can’t complain about the win. It just needs to be a little prettier than that.”

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