On Sunday, January 13, the Lady Bulldogs travel to Auburn to take on the Tigers. The last time these two teams met was February 18, 2007 in Auburn, where the Lady Dawgs won by a score of 62-55. Fans were on pins and needles as Auburn rallied to within four points in the last four minutes, but Auburn was unable to seize the W, giving Georgia their third win in a row.

Auburn is 12-4 overall this season and opened their conference season on Thursday as they visited No. 2 Tennessee. The Tigers were pretty much declawed and summarily dismissed by the Lady Vols with a final score of 52-85. Now facing No. 10 Georgia, the Lady Tigers hope to even up their SEC record. Playing at home has its advantages, and with the Lady Bulldogs suffering its only loss of the season on the road, Auburn may have the upper claw. Or do they?

Let's look at facts...

These two teams match up pretty evenly against each other on paper.

Even though Georgia leads the all-time series 21-12 over Auburn, most of that has been done in the last 15 meetings with Georgia winning 13. However, at The Plains, Georgia holds a narrow lead 7-6.

In their last meeting, two of Auburn's returning players, Sherell Hobbs and DeWanna Bonner scored 31 of those 55 points. Bonner is the top scorer for the Tigers averaging 17.4 PPG, while Tasha Humphrey leads Georgia, averaging 16.6 PPG. Theses same players also lead their teams in rebounding with Bonner averaging 10.0 and Humphrey at 9.3 rebounds per game. Bonner is one of only two players in the SEC averaging a double-double this season. Both Humphrey and Christy Marshall scored a combined 26 points. Former player, Janese Hardrick lead the Lady Dawgs with 20 points.

Add another twist…Auburn will be the first ranked team Georgia has met this season. With close victories over non-ranked teams, Temple, Southern Cal, Oakland, Georgia Tech and Florida State, the Lady Bulldogs. In fifty percent of those games, Georgia trailed at the half before taking the W by its horns.

No. 10 Georgia opened their SEC season with a 75-62 victory over Ole Miss on Thursday and looks to continue its winning ways. Georgia is 14-1 with their only loss to Xavier (55-65), a week ago today. Believe you me, that L is still stinging the Dawgs behind -- if only from the indentation of Coach Landers "kicking some butt" in practices following that dismal performance.

Offensively, Georgia is the SEC's second-best with the 13th strongest attack in the nation averaging 76.6 points per game. They are ninth in the country and lead the SEC in scoring margin - outscoring their opponents by 19.7 points per game.

But, speaking of offense, Auburn is 46-1 when scoring 70 or more points under Coach Fortner. The only loss was to No.7 Tennessee in January of 2005 by a score of 71-81. The Tigers are 18-44 when scoring less than 70 points.

Add to that, Auburn faces its third straight ranked team today and sixth overall this season. The Tigers defeated both No.15 Ohio State and No.14 Arizona State earlier this season. And have dropped games to No.10 Texas A&M, No.20 George Washington and No.2 Tennessee. But they have the “ranked” experience play, which may be all they need to give Georgia a run for their money.

New blood…

Both teams have outstanding contributions from freshman players. For Georgia, Angela Puleo is averaging 9.1 PPG, while Auburn’s Alli Smalley comes in at 10.6 PPG. In the SEC for overall scoring, Smalley sits at No. 3 and Puleo at No. 5.

Other players in the top five scoring category by class, include Auburn’s Bonner (junior at No. 2), while both Georgia’ s sophomore Ashley Houts and senior Tasha Humphrey also hold the No. 2 slot.

Bonding…

Two players, one from each team, know each other very well. Last summer in Moscow, Georgia’s Ashley Houts and Auburn’s DeWanna Bonner were teammates on the United States National Team. That team went undefeated and brought home the Gold Medal at the FIBA U21 World Championships.

Houts was the only sophomore named to the U.S. squad and averaged 4.1 points. She scored 14 points in 16 minutes of play in the quarterfinal round against Belgium. Bonner averaged slightly more at 7.5 points and also had her own 14 points in the Gold Medal round against Australia.

Who Wins?

Flip a coin…I think there’s a very real possibility Georgia could literally drop the ball. However, with their lost to Xavier still fresh in their minds and other places, I can’t imagine the Lady Dawgs going down easy.   Suffice it to say, I'll be on pins and needles as these teams play...are you ready to rumble?