Vanderbilt 61, Auburn 54

Auburn entered tonight’s final attempting to become the first team since Tennessee in 1999* to win both the SEC regular season and the tournament championship, but it was not to be, as the Vanderbilt Commodores won their sixth SEC Tournament 61-54 in a hard-fought matchup between the tournament’s top two seeds.  Vanderbilt opened the game stone cold from the floor, missing their first eight shots from the field, and yet they trailed only 6-0 at the 14:51 mark when freshman Tia Gibbs nailed a three. From that point, it was game on, with Vanderbilt hitting some clutch 3-pointers and playing a variety of defenses that seemed to confound Auburn’s SEC Player of the Year DeWanna Bonner. Bonner, who had scored a combined 58 points in Auburn’s two earlier wins, was held to four points in the first half, and Vandy took a 31-21 lead to the locker room.


The second half was still a battle, as Auburn came to life and never allowed Vanderbilt to completely put the game out of reach. Vandy stretched the lead to 12, only to watch it evaporate to five points at the 16:36 mark. After a quick Balcomb timeout, VU stretched the lead back out to 10, but Auburn center KeKe Carrier entered the game and provided the Tigers with an immediate boost. Vandy’s Christina Wirth, already a focal point for the team on offense, was called on to provide defense against Carrier, one of the more dominating inside players in the league.  Carrier was whistled for two quick fouls, but during her short stint in the game, she sparked the Tigers down low in the blocks, and the improvement in Auburn’s attitude was almost palpable with her in the game.  Auburn cut the Vandy lead to three, but were never able to get any closer. Christina Wirth, tournament MVP, stole an Auburn pass late in the game to preserve the Vanderbilt win. Wirth finished with 20 points and 8 rebounds, and played every minute of Vanderbilt's 3 tournament games.  Jen Risper and Tia Gibbs each scored 12 points, and Merideth Marsh chipped in 11 for Vanderbilt's balanced scoring attack. Auburn's only double-digit scorer was Whitney Boddie with 14, as Bonner was held to 9 points, scoring in single digits for only the third time this season.

Auburn’s record stands at 29-3, with two of those losses suffered at the hands of the Commodores.  When asked in the postgame press conference what it is about Vanderbilt that seems to give Auburn problems, coach Nell Fortner stated: “I wish I knew. I think it’s the defense they play.” Fortner went on to praise the variety of defenses Vandy threw at her team, and she especially praised Wirth, who she called “better today than I’ve seen her on film and when we played them in Nashville.”  When asked how many and what type of defenses they used in this win, Vanderbilt coach Melanie Balcomb answered, “I don’t want to give out all our secrets -- we’ve got games to play.”


Auburn and Vanderbilt were almost identical from the field, with Auburn hitting 23 of 57 shots for a 40.4% field goal percentage, and Vandy’s FGP was 40.7% on 22-of-54 shooting. Auburn won the battle of the boards 35 to 31, but Vanderbilt was more efficient in taking advantage of the opportunities they were presented with, scoring 17 points off of Auburn’s 15 turnovers.  For the game, Vanderbilt hit 10-of-28 from three point range, while Auburn went 0-for-7. Fortner stated: “It’s hard to beat a team when they’re shooting the three that well.“ Tonight’s game marks the first time Auburn has not hit a three in a game this season.

 

(*Tennessee won the SEC Tournament in 2000, but was regular season co-champion with Georgia.)

SEC All-Tournament Team:
Angie Bjorklund - Tennessee
Whitney Boddie - Auburn
DeWanna Bonner - Auburn
Jen Risper - Vanderbilt
MVP: Christina Wirth - Vanderbilt