AUBURN, ALA. (EETV) For fans of the Auburn basketball program, Thursday night’s preseason scrimmage against visiting Miles College marked the beginning of a new chapter: the Johnnie Harris era. Despite the game-long battle with an errant game clock, the Tigers were able to take care of their opponents, delivering a dominant 102-42 victory over the Lady Bears.
From the very beginning of the contest, it became apparent that the Tigers were going to control the battle in the paint as the team jumped out to a 20-point lead in the first quarter.
"When you play hard and you do the things that we ask them to do, good things will happen."
As the game progressed the orange and blue not only took care of business in the scoring department but continued to assert its dominance on the defensive end of the court, limiting the Lady Bears to just 16 points in the first half of the contest.
"On the defensive end of the ball and when we were pressing we had them out of their range," Harris said.
Harris’ squad entered the locker room leading 56-16.
To the certain pleasure of the Auburn faithful, the contest's second half proved to be more of the same for the Tigers. The orange and blue continued to build upon its lead behind the hot hand of redshirt junior Honesty Scott-Grayson. The standout guard posted 7 points in the second half, pushing her scoring total to 19 by the end of the contest.
"I thought honesty did a really good job being in the passing lane and getting her hand on the ball," Harris said.
When the fourth quarter rolled around, Harris and company found themselves up by 83-26; the group did not take its foot off the gas. Auburn continued to score at will, ending the contests with buckets coming from 12 different players and a final tally of 102.
"That felt good," Harris said. "I think they're learning us, they're learning our personality. They're learning that we're going to be intense and not to take that personally."
With preseason work all but concluded, the Tigers will now turn their attention to preparing for the regular season opener next week. Auburn will play host to Georgia Southern on Thursday, Nov. 11 in Harris' first true test as head coach of the program. Tipoff between the Tigers and the Eagles is set for 7:00 p.m. CST.
