Box Score AUBURN, Ala.—The Samford women's basketball team dropped an 80-51 decision at Auburn Saturday afternoon in Auburn Arena.
 
“Auburn is good, and they are very athletic,” Samford head coach Mike Morris said. “They do a good job from a defensive standpoint of mixing up their defense and extending it. It is hard to get past it because of their length. I thought we did a pretty good job early.”
 
Samford was led in the game by senior guard Jazmine Martin with 18 points. Freshman Ashli Mayes had 11 points, five rebounds and three assists. Senior Hannah Dawson added nine points and seven rebounds. Junior guard Shelby Campbell played just two minutes, leaving the game with a knee injury with 18:06 to go in the first half.
 
“Obviously Shelby's injury limited us at the point guard position,” Morris said. “We have roles revolving now. When we took care of the ball, we got some good looks. We shot the ball well, we just didn't have enough of it.”
 
Auburn was led by Hasina Muhammad with 19 points, five rebounds and four assists. Blanche Alverson had 15 points, while Najat Ouardad had 14 points. Tyrese Tanner added 11 points for the Tigers.
 
In the first half, the teams traded baskets for the first few minutes until, with the game tied at 5-5, Auburn went on an 8-0 run to take a 13-5 lead with 13:09 left in the half after a three-pointer by Alverson. Samford answered with an 8-0 run of its own to tie the score at 13-13 with 9:38 to go after a three-pointer by Krista Stricklin.
 
Auburn took control of the game with a 19-0 run to take a 32-13 lead with 3:09 left in the first half after a basket by Alverson. The Tigers took a 41-19 lead into halftime.
 
Samford scored the first five points of the second half to cut the Auburn lead to 17 points at 41-24 with 18:31 left in the game after a three-pointer by Martin. The Tigers scored the next five points to push their lead back to 22 points at 46-24 with 17:27 left after a layup by Tanner.
 
Auburn pushed its lead out to as much as 31 points at 80-49. The Tigers came away with an 80-51 win.
 
With the loss, Samford drops to 5-6 overall, while Auburn improves to 11-2. The loss was Samford's fourth in a row, marking the first time Samford has lost four-straight games since losing the final four games of the 2004-05 season.
 
As a team, Samford shot 40.5 percent overall and 50.0 percent from three-point range. Auburn made 51.7 percent overall and 42.9 percent from beyond the arc. Auburn outrebounded Samford, 29-25. Samford committed 26 turnovers to just nine for Auburn.
 
Samford will next play on Jan. 5, when the Bulldogs return to Southern Conference action by playing at Elon. The game is scheduled for a 1:30 p.m. (CT) start from Elon, N.C.