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Nov. 30, 2009

AUBURN - The Auburn women's basketball team (4-3) stays on the road this week as the Tigers travel to Greensboro, N.C., for a mid-week game at North Carolina A&T (2-3). The game is the third for the Tigers in a five-day period and the last before returning home for a 1 p.m., Saturday meeting with George Washington.

Traveling to Greensboro marks the third road game in a row after playing in the Seminole Classic in Tallahassee, Fla., last weekend. The Tigers went 1-1 in the tournament with a loss to host No. 12 Florida State (82-67) and a win over Florida A&M (69-45).

"We have had a really rough stretch here and I think that we have accomplished some good things," said Auburn head coach Nell Fortner. "We have a tough one ahead of us right now with North Carolina A&T. They are in the NCAA Tournament year-in and year-out and they have really good athletes."

The game is the home-opener for the Aggies and will be "Pack the House" night at Corbett Sports Center, something Fortner said her team will have to fight through.

"They are going to have a great home-court advantage with their fans tomorrow and will be a tremendous challenge for us," said Fortner. "It will be a tough environment to play in, but will be a great learning experience for our team and we are ready to accept that challenge."

The Aggies return three starters and eight letterwinners from a team that went 26-7 last season, winning the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. North Carolina A&T went on to play in the NCAA Tournament, losing 83-71 to Florida State in the first round. North Carolina A&T is under the direction of fifth-year head coach Patricia Cage-Bibbs, who sports a 79-50 record with the Aggies. She has a 450-256 career record.

North Carolina A&T was picked to finish first in the MEAC in a vote of the league's head coaches and sports information directors. Senior Ta'Wuana Cook and junior Jaleesa Sams were selected to the All-MEAC Preseason First Team while senior Lamona Smalley was named to the second team.

North Carolina A&T off to a 2-3 start this season, picking up wins over Chicago State (62-57) and Yale (80-79). All three losses have come on the road to Marist (80-64), Towson (74-69) and New Mexico (77-55). The game with Auburn will be the Aggies' home opener.

Two Aggies are averaging double figures this season with Cook pulling in 19.3 points per game and Smalley averaging 11.5 points. Smalley also leads the team in rebounding with 6.5 per game.

As a team, North Carolina A&T is shooting 39.9 percent from the field and 29.9 percent from beyond the arc. Tierra Thomas is the top 3-point threat with 14 already this season. The Aggies average 20.8 turnovers per game, but also force 20.0 per game with an average of 9.8 steals per outing.

Auburn is 4-3 on the season after competing in last weekend's Seminole Classic. Alli Smalley leads the team with 17.1 points per game while freshman Nicolle Thomas scores 12.7 per night. Thomas is coming off a 27-point outing against nationally-ranked Florida State, the most points by an Auburn freshman since Linda Godby scored 30 against Mercer on Feb. 23, 1987.

KeKe Carrier, who tallied Auburn's first double-double of the season against Florida A&M with 17 points and 12 rebounds, is third on the team with 9.7 points per game. She also averages 5.7 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per night.

Heading into the eighth game of the season, Fortner said she likes where her team is heading, but wants to see more growth and maturity in the coming weeks.

"I hope to see maturity, making smarter decisions offensively and not turning the ball over," said Fortner. "We have to continue to grow our inside presence and bring that along so that it will open up some things for us on the perimeter. It is a continual process and taking things forward from the time outs."

Tipoff in Tuesday's game is set for 6 p.m. CT. Tiger fans can listen to the game live on WMXA 96.7 FM in Auburn with play-by-play from Andy Burcham and color commentary from Arnika Edwards. An audio Webcast will also be available at www.AuburnTigers.com.

Auburn Women's Basketball Quick Hitters
• Tuesday's game is the home opener for North Carolina A&T
• Auburn is coming off a 69-45 win over Florida A&M in the 2009 Seminole Classic in Tallahassee, Fla.
• North Carolina A&T is coming if an 80-79 win over Yale in New Mexico
• Nicolle Thomas scored 27 points against Florida State, the highest point output for an Auburn freshman since 1987
• The Tigers tied the Auburn single-game blocks record against Alabama A&M with 17
• Freshman Morgan Toles and sophomores Chantel Hilliard and Parrisha Simmons earned their first career starts in the season-opener against Troy; freshman Nicolle Thomas earned her first career start against Alabama A&M
• Morgan Toles and Nicolle Thomas started against Alabama A&M, marking the first time for Auburn to have multiple freshmen starters since March 3, 2006 against Tennessee in the SEC Tournament (Boddie, Bonner, Carrier)
• KeKe Carrier, Auburn's lone senior, started against Alabama A&M - her first since Feb. 11, 2007
• Carrier had Auburn's first double-double of the season (17 pts.-12 rebs.) against Florida A&M
• The Tigers are beginning their final season in Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum before moving to the new Auburn Arena
• Auburn owns a 3-0 all-time lead in the series with North Carolina A&T, dating back to the 2002-03 season
• The Tigers and Aggies last met on Dec. 3, 2008 with Auburn taking the 95-74 win in Auburn
• As an assistant at Louisiana Tech, Fortner faced North Carolina A&T head coach Patricia Cage-Bibbs while she was head coach at Grambling State, a cross-town rival
• The Tigers are 18-4 all-time when facing schools from the state of North Carolina
• Auburn is 5-0 all-time on Dec. 1; Nell Fortner is 1-0
• The Tigers are 186-48 all-time in the month of December, 27-6 under Fortner
• Auburn owns an 13-1 all-time record against current members of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
• AU has a 64-18 non-conference record under Nell Fortner
• Since Jan. 5, 1992, Auburn has compiled a 123-6 record against non-conference opponents at home
• Auburn was picked eighth in the SEC Preseason Media and Coaches' polls, LSU (media) and Tennessee (coaches) were picked to win the league this season
• Alli Smalley was picked the the Coaches' Preseason All-SEC Second Team
• AU is receiving votes in both the AP and Coaches' top-25 polls, it marks the third year in a row for Auburn to either receive votes or be ranked in the preseason poll
• Nell Fortner is beginning her sixth season at Auburn, marking her longest tenure at any job
• The Tigers welcome four newcomers: Blanche Alverson, Morgan Toles, Nicolle Thomas, Pascale West
• Auburn begins the season with 6-7 KeKe Carrier and 6-8 Pascale West, two of the three tallest players in the SEC
• AU is without Reneisha Hobbs and Morgan Jennings after suffering ACL injuries, leaving the Tigers with a roster of nine
• Auburn will be a first- and second-round host of the 2011 NCAA Tournament in the new Auburn Arena

GAME NOTES

RANKINGS
Auburn is currently receiving votes in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches poll. North Carolina A&T is not ranked.

NEXT UP FOR THE TIGERS
Auburn will return home for its final game before the finals break, taking on George Washington at 1 p.m., Saturday.

QUICK HITS
Auburn is in its 39th season of women's basketball and sports an all-time record of 769-332... AU has made 18 NCAA Tournament appearances, two WNIT appearances and three Final Fours in the program's history... Head Coach Nell Fortner is in her sixth season at Auburn with a 122-71 career record and a 105-60 record on the Plains... The Tigers are coming off a 30-4 season in 2008-09 with their first SEC title in 20 years and its second NCAA Tournament appearance in as many seasons.

THE SERIES
Auburn holds a 3-0 all-time series lead over the Aggies. This will be the first time for Auburn to travel to Greensboro, N.C., as all three previous meetings have taken place in Auburn. The teams first met during the 2002-03 season, with Auburn taking the 73-37 win, and last met almost a year ago (Dec. 3, 2008), with the Tigers winning, 95-74. Auburn has a 30.67-point average margin of victory against North Carolina A&T.

SCOUTING AUBURN
Auburn returns seven letterwinners and one starter from last season's team that went 30-4, won the SEC title and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers are under the direction of head coach Nell Fortner who is in her sixth season at Auburn. She sports a 122-71 overall record as a head coach and a 105-60 record on the Plains.

Junior Alli Smalley is the lone holdover from that lineup after averaging 11.1 points per game last season. She tied her career high with 23 points in the season opener against Troy and is averaging a team-best 17.1 points per game on the season.

Smalley will be looked upon to help fill the offensive void left by last season's seniors as they accounted for 67 percent of Auburn's total offense, scoring 51.2 of the Tigers' 76.5 points per outing.

Helping to fill that void is freshman Nicolle Thomas, averaging 13.2 points per game. Thomas is coming off a 27-point effort against Florida State, the highest point output by an Auburn freshman since Linday Godby scored 30 against Mercer on Feb. 23, 1987.

AU also welcomes back redshirt junior Jordan Greenleaf after she sat out the bulk of the 2008-09 season with an ACL injury. She averaged 6.2 points and 5.4 rebounds per game as a sophomore and was averaging 7.0 points and 5.2 rebounds in her five appearances last season. So far this season, she is averaging 5.3 points and a team-best 7.0 rebounds per game, along with 1.7 steals.

SCOUTING NORTH CAROLINA A&T
North Carolina A&T returns three starters and eight letterwinners from last season's team that went 26-7 and finished first in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. The Aggies went on to play in the NCAA Tournament, losing 83-71 to Florida State in the first round.

The Aggies were picked to finish first in the MEAC in a vote of the league's head coaches and sports information directors. Senior Ta'Wuana Cook and junior Jaleesa Sams were selected to the All-MEAC Preseason First Team while senior Lamona Smalley was named to the second team.

North Carolina A&T is under the direction of fifth-year head coach Patricia Cage-Bibbs, who sports a 79-50 record with the Aggies. She has a 450-256 career record.

North Carolina A&T off to a 2-3 start this season, picking up wins over Chicago State (62-57) and Yale (80-79). All three losses have come on the road to Marist (80-64), Towson (74-69) and New Mexico (77-55). The game with Auburn will be the Aggies' home opener.

Two Aggies are averaging double figures this season with Cook pulling in 19.3 points per game and Smalley averaging 11.5 points. Smalley also leads the team in rebounding with 6.5 per game.

As a team, North Carolina A&T is shooting 39.9 percent from the field and 29.9 percent from beyond the arc. Tierra Thomas is the top 3-point threat with 14 already this season. The Aggies average 20.8 turnovers per game, but also force 20.0 per game with an average of 9.8 steals per outing.

LAST TIME OUT FOR AUBURN
Auburn out-scored Florida A&M in the second half, extending a four-point halftime lead to a 69-45 victory in the second game of the 2009 Seminole Classic, hosted by Florida State. Auburn senior KeKe Carrier tallied the team's first double-double of the season, scoring 17 points while pulling down 12 rebounds, to lead the Tigers against the Rattlers.

Auburn struggled from the field in the first half, knocking down only 12 of 30 attempts for 40.0 per cent. Carrier led the Tigers with 11 points, shooting 5-of-8 from the field.

Auburn scored the first 10 points of the game and extended it to a 14-point lead at 22-8 with 10:53 left to play in the opening period. Florida A&M rallied back to cut it to two in the final minute, but a Pascale West jumper with 25 seconds left game Auburn the 31-27 lead at halftime.

All nine Tigers scored in the game, led by Carrier and Smalley with 17 points each. Freshman Nicolle Thomas, fresh off last night's 27-point performance, added 10 points and three steals.

Auburn shot just 36.1 percent from the field in the game, connecting on 22 of 61 shot attempts. The Tigers also hit 54.3 percent from the charity stripe, making good on 19-of-35 attempts.

Jordan Greenleaf finished second on the team in rebounding, pulling down nine behind Carrier's 12. Along with the double-double, the eighth of Carrier's career, she also added a team-high three blocks.

LAST TIME OUT FOR NORTH CAROLINA A&T
Lamona Smalley scored a layup with one second left on the clock as North Carolina A&T pulled out the 80-79 win over Yale at the Holiday Inn & Suites Express Midtown Thanksgiving Tournament hosted by the University of New Mexico.

Smalley finished with 13 points in the game as Tierra Thomas and Amber Calvin led the team with 14 each. Nikia Gorham and Jaquayla Berry also scored in double figures with 10 each.

The Aggies were down 43-40 at halftime, but managed to out-score Yale, 40-36, in the second half to pull out the win. North Carolina A&T was out-rebounded, 46-35, but made up for it by forcing 27 Bulldog turnovers, gathering 16 steals. Crystal Murdaugh and Calvin led the team with four steals each.

LAST TIME VS. NORTH CAROLINA A&T
Senior DeWanna Bonner picked up her second double-double of the season as the No. 13 Auburn Tigers rolled to a 95-74 victory over the North Carolina A&T Aggies. In all, four Tigers finished the game in double figures as Bonner was followed by seniors Trevesha Jackson and Sherell Hobbs with 16 each and Whitney Boddie with 10. In all, 10 of the 11 Tigers chipped in points for the win.

North Carolina A&T jumped to a quick 10-3 lead just 1:24 into the first half and held the lead until the 12:42 mark when a jumper from Bonner tied the game at 18-18. The Tigers battled out the remainder of a first half that saw the score tied on five occasions with three lead changes, ending in a 45-42 halftime advantage for the Tigers.

After the break, Auburn opened up a quick 11-point lead and never allowed the Aggies back within eight. As the half wore on, so grew an Auburn lead that peaked at the 1:48 mark with a 24-point Auburn advantage. The Tigers converted eight second-half Aggie turnovers into 16 points.

Four Aggies scored in double-digits led by senior Brittanie Taylor-James with 18 points and nine rebounds. North Carolina A&T finished the game 28-of-58 from the field, 5-of-13 from three-point range and 13-of-17 from the line.

The Tigers shot 48.6 percent from the field, knocking down 35-of-72 attempts. Auburn was also 5-of-7 from three-point land with Hobbs and Alli Smalley knocking down two each.

AGAINST THE MID-EASTERN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE
Auburn holds a 13-1 all-time record against current members of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. Auburn's last meeting against a MEAC school came last weekend in a 69-45 win over Florida A&M.

Nell Fortner VS. PATRICIA CAGE-BIBBS
This will be the second meeting between Auburn head coach Nell Fortner and North Carolina A&T's Patricia Cage-Bibbs as head coaches with Fortner holding the 1-0 lead.

The two faced each other earlier in their careers when Fortner was an assistant coach at Louisiana Tech and Cage-Bibbs was head coach at nearby Grambling State. The Louisiana Tech and Grambling campuses are separated by just six miles.

Fortner is in her sixth season at Auburn and holds a 105-60 record on The Plains. Cage-Bibbs is in her fifth season at North Carolina A&T and holds a 79-50 record.

ON THIS DATE. . .
Auburn is 5-0 all-time when playing on Dec. 1. The last game for the Tigers on Dec. 1 came in 2006 when the Tigers defeated Nevada, 84-75, at the Nuggett Classic in Reno, Nev. Nell Fortner is 1-0 as Auburn's coach on Dec. 1.

AGAINST THE TAR HEEL STATE
Auburn has an 18-4 record all-time when playing teams from the state of North Carolina. Three of the four losses have come at the hands of Duke.

SUPER FRESHMAN
Freshman Nicolle Thomas did against Florida State what no Auburn freshman has done in a long time. The Moultrie, Ga., native scored 27 points against the 12th-ranked Seminoles, the highest single-game scoring output by an Auburn freshman since Linda Godby scored 30 against Mercer on Feb. 23, 1987.

DOUBLE DOWN
Senior KeKe Carrier tallied Auburn's first double-double of the season against Florida A&M in the 2009 Seminole Classic. The Lake Charles, La., native put up a season-high 17 points while coming one short of her career high with 12 rebounds.

STARTING FRESHMEN
In the Nov. 19 win over Alabama A&M, Nicolle Thomas made her first career appearance in the starting lineup, joining fellow freshman Morgan Toles. With two freshmen starting, it marked the first time for Auburn to have multiple freshmen in the starting lineup since March 3, 2006 when freshmen Whitney Boddie, DeWanna Bonner and KeKe Carrier started in the SEC Tournament against Tennessee.

BACK IN THE LINEUP
KeKe Carrier, the lone senior on Auburn's roster this season, made her 24th career start on Nov. 19 against Alabama A&M. It marked the first time for Carrier to start a game at Auburn since Feb. 11, 2007 when she started at Vanderbilt.

60 AND COUNTING
Auburn junior guard Alli Smalley earned her first collegiate start on Dec. 29, 2007 at Saint Joseph's, the 14th game of her collegiate career, and has not left. Since then, Smalley has started in 60 consecutive games.

BLOCK PARTY
Auburn tied the single-game school record for blocked shots on Nov. 19, 2009 with 17 against Alabama A&M. Auburn has twice before recorded 17 blocks in a game, first on Dec. 1, 1993 against Lamar and again on Feb. 23, 1994 against South Alabama. In the Alabama A&M game, freshman Pascale West tallied seven blocks while KeKe Carrier added five.

OUTSIDE THE LEAGUE
Nell Fortner has guided the Tigers to a 64-18 ledger in non-conference play. When playing in Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum, Fortner's teams have posted a 26-4 mark. The only four non-conference losses in BEMC came from Xavier on Dec. 2, 2005 (58-60), No. 2 Duke on Dec. 31, 2004 (61-80), No. 20 George Washington on Jan. 3, 2008 (68-66) and No. 15 Texas A&M on Nov. 22, 2009 (79-59).

OFFENSE WINS GAMES
Auburn is 73-2 when scoring 70 or more points in the Nell Fortner era. The only times Auburn has lost when scoring at least 70 points was on Jan. 20, 2005 vs. No. 7 Tennessee, 71-81 and Feb. 19, 2009 at No. 18 Vanderbilt, 73-70. When scoring less than 70 points, Auburn is 30-55 during the Fortner era.

IN DECEMBER
Auburn is 186-48 all-time in the month of December, including a 27-6 mark under Nell Fortner (records begin in 1978-79 season, not all dates provided prior to or during that season).

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