Vanderbilt def. Auburn, 61-54

Hey everyone. Let's get it started.

• FINAL
  Vanderbilt 61, Auburn 54.
  
  
• FOURTH TO @ 2:34, 2nd half
  Vanderbilt leads, 55-50. Auburn has broken through offensively, but they keep losing Vandy shooters on designed three-point plays. It's bizarre. The shooters have half the court to themselves. That's the difference right now.
  
  
• THIRD TO @ 7:08, 2nd half
  Vanderbilt leads, 49-41. It seems like Auburn is making advances to their offensive approach, but Christina Wirth keeps hitting shots. It's a wash right now.
  
  
• SECOND TO @ 11:35, 2nd half
  Vanderbilt leads, 41-33. Auburn still is struggling to score. Fortner now is willing to use 6-foot-7 center KeKe Carrier to counteract Vanderbilt's miniature lineup. I haven't seen Carrier play well in years. Will this be the game she pulls her team from the abyss? Vanderbilt cannot stop her.
  
  
• FIRST TO @ 16:36, 2nd half
  Vanderbilt leads, 34-29. Auburn is deflecting far more passes on defense now. If they can start grabbing rebounds and pushing the pace, they can win this game. That's a big if. I see a different air exuding from Boddie ... she seems prepared to beat somebody down.
  
  
• HALFTIME NUMBERS
  Shooting
  AUB -- 10-24 42%
  VAN -- 12-27 44%
  
  3 Shooting
  AUB -- 0-2 00%
  VAN -- 5-14 36%
  
  FT Shooting
  AUB -- 1-2 50%
  VAN -- 2-2 100%
  
  Rebounding
  AUB -- 12 (2o, 10d)
  VAN -- 16 (4o, 12d)
  
  DeWanna Bonner: 2-4, 4 points, 3 reb
  Whitney Boddie: 0-5, 0 points, 6 ast, 1 turnover
  
  
• HALFTIME
  Vanderbilt leads, 31-21.
  
  
• FOURTH TO @ 3:01, 1st half
  Vanderbilt leads, 24-20. The Commodores have turned this around on Auburn, pushing the tempo and getting some easy baskets in transition. Auburn, to me, seems impatient on offense. Vanderbilt is good with that zone. You have to be thoughtful about attacking it. I'm not seeing that in general right now.
  
  
• THIRD TO @ 7:11, 1st half
  Auburn leads, 14-13. Vanderbilt's zone is somewhat unique. They like to trap along the perimeter. It's what Jeff Lebo used in that win against Arkansas a few weeks ago. Auburn is having a hard time with that. They badly need fast-break situations to get Vanderbilt's defense unraveled and dissociated.
  
  
• SECOND TO @ 11:36, 1st half
  Auburn leads, 10-8. The Tigers certainly have slowed down. They're now in that jump-shot mode we saw in the first half against Tennessee yesterday. Not much away-from-the-ball motion. Not sure what's going on there. Vanderbilt is sitting in that zone and won't come out of it. This should be Smalley's chance to shine.
  
  
• FIRST TO @ 15:19, 1st half
  Auburn leads, 6-0. Vanderbilt currently is 0-for-8 from the floor. Some of those shots have been open. It's just bad luck. Boddie is playing way too fast. You can tell she's amped up to be on ESPN2. Nell already has yelled at her a few times: "SLOW DOWN."
  
  
• YOUR AUBURN STARTERS
  PG -- Whitney Boddie, 44
  SG -- Alli Smalley, 5
  SF -- Sherell Hobbs, 12
  PF -- DeWanna Bonner, 24
  C -- Trevesha Jackson, 1