Auburn's inside game snuffs Arkansas' fire

DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE PRESS SERVICES

AUBURN, Ala. -- Arkansas came out hot but couldn't hang on to a halftime lead as 13th-ranked Auburn came back to defeat the Lady Razorbacks 73-56 Thursday night.
The Lady Razorbacks led by as many as 12 early in the first half and 30-29 at halftime, but Auburn outscored Arkansas 54-26 in the second half.
"Auburn was very beatable tonight, but I'm not sure that we recognized that," Arkansas Coach Gary Blair said. "This was a very winnable game.
"We wanted a 20-minute game, and we made it that. [Dana] Cherry hit a great bucket to give us the lead at halftime, but when we came back out of the locker room we didn't have any emotion."
Lonniya Bragg led Arkansas (14-10, 5-7 SEC) with 12 points, followed by Wendi Willits and Cherry with 10 each.
LeCoe Willingham led Auburn with 19 points. Tasha Hamilton added 14, Conswella Sparrow had 12 and Lori Nero finished with 10.
Back-to-back layups by point guard Tiffany Krantz led Auburn's 8-0 run to start the second half as it took command 37-30. Three free throws by Cherry was all the offense Arkansas mustered until Willits' first field goal of the game ended a string of five misses by the Lady Razorbacks.
"They were a layup machine in the second half," Blair said. "They dominated us in the paint."
Auburn (19-5, 7-4) kept Arkansas at arm's length by driving inside for short jumpers and drawing personal fouls. The Lady Tigers were in the bonus six minutes into the second half, but Arkansas caught a break as Auburn missed nine of its first 13 free-throw attempts.
Nero came off the bench and scored six points to push the Auburn lead over 10. Her putback of a missed free throw made it 49-37 with 11:22 to play.
Arkansas cut the lead to 61-51 on a driving layup by Bragg, but back-to-back three-point plays by Sparrow and Willingham sparked a 6-0 run that gave Auburn a 67-51 lead with 3:31 to play.
Auburn led briefly in the first half before four Lady Razorbacks hit three-pointers to spur a 17-3 run. Amy Wright started the string of three-pointers. Celia Anderson scored on a putback before India Lewis, Brandi Whitehead and Cherry all drilled three-pointers to give Arkansas a 19-9 lead.
Arkansas' lead grew to 12 points before Auburn began to heat up at the free-throw line to get back in the game. The Lady Tigers made up for poor first-half shooting (33 percent) with a 9-of-13 effort at the free-throw line. A three-point play by Hamilton gave the Lady Tigers a 29-28 lead with 1:36 in the quarter.
Arkansas' defense forced a turnover but lost Whitehead in the scramble for the ball. The senior post sprained her back lunging for the ball and left the game a minute before halftime.
Cherry took a running pass from Lewis with 16 seconds left in the half to send Arkansas to the locker room with a 30-29.
The loss dropped Arkansas into a tie with Kentucky for ninth place in the conference.

This article was published on Friday, February 18, 2000

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