Auburn stuns defending champ LSU, sets crowd record

AUBURN, Ala. – In front of the largest crowd to witness a women’s basketball game at Neville Arena, Auburn stunned defending national champion No. 7 LSU 67-62 Sunday behind 21 points from Honesty Scott-Grayson.

Trailing 52-51, Scott-Grayson opened the fourth quarter with a jumper that gave the Tigers a one-point lead as cheers of “Let’s go Auburn!” thundered through the arena, with 7,720 in attendance.

Celia Sumbane stole the ball and passed to Mar’shaun Bostic, who found Scott-Grayson for a layup that gave Auburn a 55-54 lead, and the Tigers maintained their advantage over the final 6 minutes and 34 seconds.

McKenna Eddings’ only basket of the game was a biggie, a corner 3-pointer that extended Auburn’s lead to 59-55 with 5:21 to play.

With fewer than three minutes to play, Angel Reese made LSU’s first field goal of the quarter on a putback that cut Auburn’s lead to one.

Scott-Grayson drove and scored to put Auburn ahead 62-59 at the 2:29 mark, and JaMya Mingo-Young hit four free throws down the stretch to keep LSU at bay.

Unintimidated by LSU’s championship resume and star-studded roster, Auburn built a double-digit lead in the first quarter by making four steals and outscoring the visitors 7-3 in points off turnovers.

Mingo-Young stole the ball and passed to Honesty Scott-Grayson who scored a layup, drew a foul and made a free throw to give Auburn an 11-7 lead.

Scott-Grayson scored eight in the quarter, including a 3-pointer that put the Tigers ahead by 10 before LSU ended the period with a pair of free throws with 1.3 seconds to play to cut Auburn’s lead to 23-15 after the first quarter.

The home Tigers missed their first six shots in the second quarter while LSU used a 10-0 run to take the lead. Mingo-Young’s jumper ended the run and tied the score at 25-25. After an Auburn steal, Sumbane’s 3-point play gave the Tigers a 28-25 lead midway through the quarter.

In a half that featured eight lead changes, Scott-Grayson’s layup gave Auburn its final lead of the half before LSU answered with a layup seven seconds later on its way to a 37-34 halftime lead.

Trailing by three at the half, Auburn scored the first six points of the third quarter on baskets by Kaitlyn Duhon, Scott Grayson and Taylen Collins to take a 40-37 lead.

After LSU reclaimed the lead, Sydney Shaw’s second-chance 3-pointer put Auburn ahead by one before Reese’s layup eight seconds later gave the Bengal Tiger a 48-47 lead.

Scott-Grayson’s jumper with 4 seconds left in the third quarter pulled Auburn within one heading to the final 10 minutes.

Auburn (12-5, 1-3) travels to Nashville to play Vanderbilt Thursday at 6:30 p.m. CT before returning to the Plains next Sunday to host Alabama to start a three-game homestand.