Auburn Game Roll Call

[captaggie]

In honor of the Ladies ECU win, a few members of the Metro Atlanta Aggie Club are making the trip.

Aggie Pride!

[Maxell]

Aggie Pride!

[Bornthrilla]

We match up pretty good against Auburn too.

They have a 6-7 center and a 6-4 guard, but everyone else is about our size:

auburntigers.cstv.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/aub-w-baskbl-mtt.html

[Maxell]

That 6-4 guard is the SEC Pre-season Player of the Year in the same league as Tennessee and LSU.

[Maxell]

AUBURN WOMEN'S BASKETBALL: Bonner is versatile star
By John Zenor • The Associated Press • November 2, 2008

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Buzz up! AUBURN -- Slashing through the lane for an easy lay-in or posting up a smaller center, Auburn's DeWanna Bonner is ready to dominate the Southeastern Conference.


The 6-foot-4 Bonner combines the height of a post player with the quickness of a guard, which makes her a very difficult player for opponents to stop. She averaged 18.4 points and 10 rebounds last season, becoming only the second Auburn player to lead the team in scoring and rebounding three seasons running. The first was Becky Jackson, who did it four straight years in the early 1980s. Bonner looks to make it 4-for-4.

"She's a special player," Tennessee coach Pat Summitt said. "You don't see many people with her size that have the skill set that she has, playing from the outside or the inside. She's a great competitor. She's just gotten better and better. I expect her to continue to be a force in the game."

Even with Bonner's numbers, it was hard to stand out in a conference that included Tennessee's Candace Parker and LSU's Sylvia Fowles. Those two stars joined the WNBA as its top two picks, and Bonner seems certain to follow them.

"I think that if she has the year that we're expecting, she'll be to me a top 3 pick because she's so versatile," said Auburn coach Nell Fortner, a former Indiana Fever WNBA head coach and general manager.

Adds teammate Sherell Hobbs: "She can be just as good as anybody else. She can be a household name if she really wants to be."

Bonner was a near-unanimous pick as preseason SEC player of the year, receiving 24 of 25 votes. Vanderbilt's Christina Wirth received the other vote.

At times, Bonner has guarded all five positions, her quickness aiding her against post players and her long arms making it hard for point guards to get the ball around her.

She's more comfortable defending on the perimeter than posting up, though.

"I tell coach Fortner I'm a guard every day and she says, 'No you're not,'" Bonner said. "I love playing the guard position.

"I don't post up that much. I try to use my speed and quickness against bigger post players. That's the best part, I'm quicker than any other post player."

Bonner finished second to Parker in scoring last season and trailed only Fowles in rebounding. Another statistic that separates her from many post players: Bonner led the SEC by making 81 percent from the free throw line.

"She's so versatile that she's a hard guard," Hobbs said. "In the women's game now, you need to be more versatile. You need to be able to play multiple positions, and she can do that. That makes her special. And her being 6-4, she's athletic as I don't know what. Her being a smart player helps us too."

Being able to slip through cracks in the defense doesn't hurt.

"I can't get through a space DeWanna can get through and score buckets," Hobbs said.

About the only knock against Bonner is she's rail-thin. She has tried to beef up during her college career, even downing protein shakes. Fortner said her star player has gained 15-20 pounds of muscle since high school, getting a little broader of shoulder.

"She eats like a horse," Fortner said. "We've done all that, but she's just not built that way."

Bonner has added skills, if not weight. Her scoring, rebounding and shot-blocking numbers have improved each season. She finished second on the team in blocks and steals and third in assists.

Hobbs spent the summer before last season playing for the USA Basketball Under-21 national team that won a gold medal. She scored 16 points in the final win over Australia.

It was good preparation for life in the SEC.

"You've got to think smart, got to play smart, you've got to play hard when you're playing against people like that," Bonner said. "Every night you have to bring it. There's no night when you can relax because every team's good."

[JayBee]

My biggest concern is our injuries! We already had a couple of girls out from injuries, and ECU injured about 3 more by putting in the hatchet team on ocassions. Sams went down with a knee, but managed to come back and continue playing! Bland took a blow to her side, but managed to play while putting ice packs to it during time outs! Taylor-James got beat up pretty bad also, so I know she is sore! ECU was doing a lot of intentional fouls out of frustration!

[pj]

GameTracker...the game is at 6pm central.
Go get them "T"!!!...make us proud!

auburntigers.cstv.com/sports/w-baskbl/sched/aub-w-baskbl-sched.html

[captaggie]

Thanks pj!

My job snagged me at the last minute and I missed the "Aggie Train to Auburn."

[JayBee]

A&T - 14
AU - 9, 15:29 left!

[JayBee]

A&T - 18
AU - 18, 12:39 left!

[JayBee]

A&T - 20
AU - 20, 11:40 left!

[JayBee]

A&T -24
AU - 24, 9:50 left!

[captaggie]

Exciting game so far!!

[JayBee]

A&T - 26
AU - 32, 7:46 left!

[JayBee]

A&T - 35
AU - 36, 3:47 left!