Lady Tigers (No. 9) its getting harder

[kingfish 76]

Growing excitement about the Lady Tigers is making the best seats harder to find. With this group of Lady Tigers just being inside is exciting. For anyone wishing to add excitement to your life, here it is right here on the Plains.

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Auburn women chomp Florida

Monday, January 12, 2009

By EVAN WOODBERY

Times Auburn Writer evan.woodbery@htimes.com

AUBURN - The crowd at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum was the seventh-largest in Auburn women's basketball history, but it might have been the loudest.

Clearly, word is getting out about the Tigers' incredible streak.

No. 9 Auburn beat 18th-ranked Florida 81-65 Sunday in front of an announced crowd of 6,090 ?more than the men's basketball team has drawn at any point this season. The Tigers (17-0, 2-0 SEC) shot 56 percent from the field, outraced the Gators (15-2, 1-1) in transition and owned the paint on both ends of the floor.

"It was phenomenal," said Auburn coach Nell Fortner of the game-day atmosphere. "I was so pleased because it truly gives you a home-court advantage. The crowd was in it from the tip-off, and we heard them the whole game."

Auburn was paced by its trio of seniors. DeWanna Bonner had a game-high 29 points and 11 rebounds. Sherrell Hobbs shot 10-of-12 from the field to score 23. Point guard Whitney Boddie had 14 points and 11 assists.

Florida's leading scorer, senior guard Sha Brooks, shot only 3-of-18, including six misses from 3-point range.

Auburn's 6-foot-7 center KeKe Carrier, who has struggled with conditioning throughout her career, played a season-high 21 minutes, blocking seven shots and grabbing six rebounds.

"I thought she just played like a warrior today," Fortner said. "She's just a defensive presence inside. Offensively, she makes a difference whether she's scoring or not."

Auburn has a week off before visiting Arkansas next weekend.

[PChamp119 96]

Great to hear. I am surprised they got such a great crowd.

So let's recap shall we:

Many claimed that our Mens basketball program was not good because of poor facilities and thus it was making it much harder to recruit. And the fans won't go to the games because of such poor facilities, so the games aren't as exciting, and thus it is difficult to gain a home court advantage and thus we still lose.

Then the Women... W-O-M-E-N basketball team comes along with the exact same conditions and starts winning. I know for sure that fans didn't come to their games either, even if they were NCAA / NIT borderline for a few years.

Now the women are having BETTER crowds then the men. Unbelievable. You'd think we were at Tennessee before Bruce Pearl showed up.

It goes to show that winning brings in the fans. It's not the facilities after all. And it goes to show that you can win even with our current facilities.

I'm still willing to bet that even with a new arena in a couple of years that the crowds will be relatively the same.