Tigers beat Tennessee, move to SEC title game

NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The conclusion was definitive; history and a statement were made.

How the Tigers did it, though — outscoring the perennial heavyweight Lady Vols by 25 in the second half on their way to a 78-58, SEC Tournament semifinal victory Saturday — is still up for discussion.

That’s because Nell Fortner, the last person to address all the Tigers before they silenced a Tennessee-dominated crowd and sent the Lady Vols to their worst tournament loss in program history, wasn’t telling.

“That’s a secret,” she said. “I’m going to bottle that up and sell it.”

DeWanna Bonner thought it all centered on the glass, when the Tigers limited the Vols to just two offensive rebounds — neither of which resulted in points — during the first 10 minutes of the second half.

Whitney Boddie focused on Auburn’s aggressiveness at the offensive end, something it lacked entirely in the first half, as Tiger players largely watched Bonner try to work miracles possession after possession.

Sherell Hobbs pointed out Tennessee’s underclassman-heavy lineup, which definitely appeared to panic once Auburn took command of a game Tennessee largely dominated in the first half.

Alli Smalley looked at the defensive effort, “the fuel for our offense,” in a complete dismantling of one of sports’ paramount programs.

“We didn’t worry about the name on the front of the jersey and just played,” Boddie said.

Now the Tigers are playing for their most important goal to date in today’s SEC Tournament championship against No. 2 Vanderbilt. Tipoff is slated for 6:30 p.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN2. It’s the team’s first appearance in the conference title game since 1997, but something Auburn expected coming into the season with its loaded senior class.

“It’s a definite goal of this season, so we’re excited to have an opportunity to play for a championship,” Fortner said.

First, though, the Tigers had to take care of Tennessee — the team Auburn knew it had to get through to a championship, Fortner said.

And it wasn’t as easy as the final score made it seem — at least in the first half, anyway.

Auburn never trailed by more than the 5-point deficit it took into halftime, but nothing about the Tigers’ style of play made it appear their second double-digit win over the Lady Vols was imminent.

Auburn’s first-half offense was Bonner and Bonner alone. The rest of the Tigers were mere spectators. Bonner had more than half of Auburn’s 26 points, and the rest of the Tigers were 5-of-16 from the field.

Tennessee, meanwhile, was doing everything it could to make its large turnout of fans think it’d need to extend its hotel stays into tonight. Missed shots were promptly followed by offensive rebounds, as the Lady Vols picked up 13 second-chance points even without center Kelley Cain, who went down in the first two minutes with a lingering knee injury.

“Obviously, we went in at halftime feeling pretty good about what we had done,” Summitt said. “I knew (Auburn) would have a good talking to at halftime.”
Apparently, that’s all the Tigers needed.

Auburn pounced on the Lady Vols with a 19-2 run in the half’s first seven minutes. Boddie’s strong drive followed by a swished mid-range jumper gave Auburn the lead for good with 16:46 to play and typified Auburn’s new approach.

“Sometimes, you have a great player like DeWanna, you can stand around,” said Boddie, who scored all but two of her 19 points in the second half. “She can shoot from half court and you don’t have to do much.

“You can’t sit back on your heels and have them force you to do certain things.”

Bonner, who finished with a game-high 26 points, didn’t hit any half-court shots, but her longest 3-pointer of the year, which capped a 13-3 run with 9:04 to play, served as the crowning moment of one of Auburn’s best halves of the season.

“We were only down by five and we came back and kind of cornered them,” Bonner said. “That’s what happened in the second half.”