FAYETTEVILLE -- Brandy Montgomery scored 18 points and two other Tigers added 16 or more as Auburn handed the Arkansas women's basketball team its 10th consecutive loss to close the regular season Sunday.
Guards Janiah McKay and Katie Frerking scored 17 and 16 points, respectively, to aide Montgomery in the 70-64 win. Auburn entered the fourth quarter trailing Arkansas 47-40 but turned in a 30-point final quarter to get out with its 17th win of the season and seventh in Southeastern Conference play.
Women’s College Basketball
Auburn 70, Arkansas 64
Auburn^20^11^9^30^—^70
Arkansas^15^19^13^17^—^64
Auburn (17-13, 7-9): Montgomery 18, McKay 17, Frerking 16, Johnson 6, Sanders 4, Jazmine Jones 3, Lewis 3, E. Jones 2, Jessica Jones 1.
Arkansas (13-16, 2-14): Jackson 14, Cosper 14, Swenson 12, Cooley 11, Monk 10, Wilson 3.
3-point FG — Auburn 8-23 (Frerking 3), Arkansas 9-28 (Cosper 4). Assists — Auburn 15 (Frerking 5), Arkansas 12 (Monk 4). Steals — Auburn 10 (Jessica Jones 3, Montgomery 3), Arkansas 4 (Swenson, Monk, Wilson, Cosper 1 each). Blocked shots — Auburn 6 (Frerking 3), Arkansas 2 (Cooley, Wilson 1 each). Turnovers — Auburn 7 (Frerking, Jessica Jones 2), Arkansas 19 (Wilson 6).
Technical Fouls: None. Fouled out: Arkansas, Jackson. Officials: Laura C. Morris, Metta Roberts, Douglas Knight.
Attendance: 1685
"At this point, in your last game of the regular season, you've just got to play as hard as you can," Auburn coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said. "We were struggling offensively, but thank goodness in the fourth quarter we found the basket."
Twice prior to the fourth quarter Auburn missed at least 10 consecutive shots. The Tigers missed 11 straight shots to begin the second quarter and 10 to open the second half. Arkansas, though, could not pull away. The Razorbacks led by as many as seven with four minutes, 50 seconds to play in the third.
Fortunes then changed for Williams-Flournoy's club, which knocked down its first 10 shots in an explosive fourth quarter. Arkansas allowed the Tigers to shoot 62.5 percent (10 of 16) in the fourth. Meanwhile, Jimmy Dykes' Razorbacks were 6 of 17 from the floor (35.3 percent) and 3 of 10 from 3-point range.
"A lot of them were the same shots," Williams-Flournoy said of Auburn's fourth-quarter shooting. "One thing we did do differently was when we turned them over we actually pushed and scored in transition. That's our best offense. Our defense makes our offense."
Auburn turned three fourth-quarter turnovers into five points and capped the game from the foul line, shooting 9 of 14.
Jessica Jackson and Devin Cosper led Arkansas with 14 points each in the loss. Sunday was Jackson's 16th consecutive game in double figures and 100th in her Arkansas career. Cosper's 14 points are the most in a game since a 15-point night against LSU on Jan. 8. The Razorbacks finished with five players in double figures.
Next, Arkansas will enter this week's SEC Tournament in Greenville, S.C., as the 14-seed and play the second game Wednesday on the SEC Network against the league's 11-seed.
"We'll go down there to Greenville and fight as hard as we can," Dykes said. "We have to lead the league in number of losses by 5 or less or 10 or less. But we didn't win them.
"It's been a tough year, a hard year," he continued. "There have been a lot of things we've had to work through, fight through. I've been so proud of how we have done that because this has been a challenging year in many, many ways."
Keiryn Swenson added 12 points for Arkansas while Alecia Cooley and Malica Monk pitched in 11 and 10, respectively.
Sports on 02/27/2017