Fresh off a second tournament title in two weeks, the Auburn women’s basketball team improved their record to 9-0 as they crushed the Colgate Red Raiders 99-47 last Wednesday night in Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum. The Tigers dominated every aspect of the game, jumping out to a 19-0 lead from the opening tip-off. In fact, it took nine minutes before the Red Raiders recorded their first basket. 
The Auburn defense forced 26 turnovers on the night and took a commanding 49-10 lead at the half. The night belonged to freshman Ruth Ketcham. Ketcham had a coming out party as she led all scorers with 26 points on 10-of-12 shooting from the floor. 
“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a shooting performance like that,” said Head Coach Nell Fortner. “I think she was five for five before she missed a shot. It was fun to see that.”
Freshman phenom Alli Smalley continued her exceptional play as she added 16 points. DeWanna Bonner added 14 and Sherrell Hobbs recorded 13 points for the Lady Tigers. Bonner etched her mark on the history books becoming the 23rd player in Auburn history to have 1,000 career points and the 11th player to have both 1,000 points and 500 rebounds. At 9-0, the Tigers are off to their best season start since winning 11 straight games in the 2002-2003 season.
Look for Auburn’s ranking to improve again this week.
“It is a ranking that we have worked hard for,” Fortner said. “We’ve earned it. It didn’t drop in our lap, we want to make sure we keep it and keep moving up. We are proud of it because it is something that has taken a lot of hard work to get.”
The game against the Red Raiders served as a tune up before the Lady Tigers travel to College Station, Texas to take on #11 Texas A&M (6-1). The game against the Aggies on Dec. 15th will be the toughest test of the season so far. The Tigers will continue play in Texas traveling to Stephen F. Austin (1-5) on Dec. 17th and to Sam Houston State (1-8) on Dec. 19th.