Senior night, bad night for UA

ROB KEYS
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

FAYETTEVILLE -- Karyn Karlin and Brandi Whitehead were honored on senior night at Bud Walton Arena on Thursday, but the Arkansas seniors almost certainly will get to play another home game next month.
That's because No. 11 Auburn's 71-58 victory before a crowd of 5,259 probably put Arkansas (14-12, 4-9) in the unenviable position of having to win the SEC Tournament to draw a bid to the NCAA Tournament.
If the Lady Razorbacks, who are 3-8 all-time in SEC Tournament games and could enter the tournament as low as the No. 10 seed, fail to do that, they likely will play in the WNIT for the second consecutive year.
Despite the tough task, Arkansas Coach Gary Blair refused to give up hope of reaching the NCAA Tournament.
"Folks, we can win the SEC Tournament," Blair said, despite the fact that Arkansas has never won more than one game in any trip to the tournament.
Auburn (21-5, 9-4), conversely, is a lock to receive an NCAA Tournament bid and may have played itself into position to host games by clinching the SEC's No. 4 seed and a first-round bye in next week's conference tournament.
"We wanted to take care of business tonight," Auburn Coach Joe Ciampi said. "We wanted to control our own destiny, and the players did that."
Freshman LeCoe Willingham scored 18 points to lead Auburn, while Tiffany Krantz added 15 and Tasha Hamilton 14.
Karlin led Arkansas with 18 points. Freshmen India Lewis and Dana Cherry scored 14 and 10, respectively.
Auburn dominated the game inside, scoring 52 points in the paint. In the first 13:02 of the second half, the Tigers scored all 18 of their points on layups or putbacks.
"We made good backdoor cuts, we pinned people and we sealed," Ciampi said.
The Tigers' strategy was nothing new to the Lady Razorbacks, who lost 73-56 at Auburn last week.
"We worked on it a lot in practice, but they are really strong," Karlin said. "Obviously what we did didn't work too well. We were fighting our hearts out, we just couldn't get around them. They were getting 2-footers and they were making them."
Despite Auburn's inside dominance, Arkansas was able to cut an 11-point halftime deficit to five points twice in the first 11 minutes of the second half, the first time coming on a Lewis three-pointer with 12:07 to play.
But Hamilton answered by putting back her own miss on the other end to give Auburn a 52-45 lead.
That lead held until Lonniya Bragg scored on a putback to get Arkansas within 52-47 with 8:57 remaining.
Auburn answered again, though, as Willingham scored on a layup on the Tigers' ensuing possession. Willingham's basket sparked a 10-2 run that gave Auburn a 61-49 lead with 5:19 to play.
Arkansas made one final charge when Karlin hit a 19-footer and converted a three-point play to get the Lady Razorbacks within 61-54 with 3:59 remaining.
But following a timeout, Willingham went on a 6-0 run for a 67-56 Auburn lead, and Arkansas didn't threaten again.
"Willingham is a freshman," Ciampi said. "She doesn't know any better."
Auburn controlled the first half, outscoring Arkansas 15-5 over a span of 6:31 to build a 29-17 lead 7:06 before halftime.
Arkansas trimmed the lead to 29-22 on back-to-back layups by Cherry and Wendi Willits and a Whitehead free throw, but Auburn went on a 7-3 spurt over the final 2:39 of the half for a 36-25 lead.
Arkansas ends the regular season Sunday at Ole Miss.

This article was published on Friday, February 25, 2000

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