Auburn likes matchup with Lady Vols

Whitney Boddie didn't need a calendar or a women's basketball schedule to see this day and this game coming.

"In football, when Auburn plays Alabama you always know when it is," Auburn's point guard said.

An Iron Bowl context shows the added weight Boddie and the sixth-ranked Tigers (19-0, 4-0 SEC) are putting on a women's basketball showdown with No. 10 Tennessee (15-3, 4-1) at Beard-Eaves Coliseum on Sunday (TV:CSS, 3 p.m.).

The game is loaded with SEC and national implications as well as added incentive for the home team, which has lost 16 in a row in the series.

"We always knew it was there,'' Boddie said of today's game. "Every game is significant, but Tennessee is always a big game."

If anything, the Tigers have supersized this meeting with their play. They are 19-0 for the third time in program history and the first time since 1988-89, when the Tigers won their first 29 games before losing to Tennessee in the SEC tournament final.

Auburn's DeWanna Bonner, the preseason pick for conference player of the year, is one of just seven players ranked in the top 20 nationally in scoring and top 100 in rebounding. The 6-foot-4 wing player is averaging 20.2 points and 8.6 rebounds per game.

"I probably over-use the word 'versatile' for her, but I don't know another word to describe her with; she just has so many weapons in her pocket,'' Auburn coach Nell Fortner. "I think that she is probably the most underrated player doing the things that she is doing this season."

Bonner is the marquee player on a team that's averaging 80 points per game and shooting a conference-best 48.3 percent from the floor, 44.3 percent from 3-point range.

The return of Boddie and 6-7 reserve post KeKe Carrier, though, has been equally instrumental to Auburn's success. Carrier was redshirted last season while Boddie played 11 games before being sidelined for academic reasons.

"I knew I was hurting my team," Boddie said. "I felt bad. It made me that much hungrier. I had to come back stronger."

Boddie, a senior, has amassed 145 assists and is ranked second nationally, averaging 8.1 per game. She's fourth in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.7.

"My job is to make the game easier for everyone,'' Boddie said.

With four seniors starting, Fortner is counting on the Tigers' experience against UT, more so than any motivational ploys.

"I really think you have to have a team that has some confidence about themselves and some experience in playing Tennessee and right now that is what we have,'' Fortner said.

They haven't beaten them, but they have stepped on the floor with Tennessee ... and they understand what is going on here."

The youthful Lady Vols are short on experience. As for players, Saturday's report from the training room was encouraging. Center Kelley Cain, who sat out Thursday's game against Arkansas with a sore right knee, might play today. Forward Vicki Baugh, who's trying to overcome a left knee sprain, also might see action.

On the other hand, starting guard Angie Bjorklund forgot her basketball shoes for practice Saturday, forcing the team bus to return to the team's hotel. As a result, she won't start today. Instead, freshman Alicia Manning will line up for the opening tip.

Despite winning three games since a 74-58 loss at Vanderbilt on Jan. 11, Tennessee's per-game scoring average and rebounding margin have been shrinking. Furthermore, its overall shooting percentage still is languishing around 40 percent. These are telltale signs that the Lady Vols are surviving rather than thriving.

After Thursday's 76-67 victory at Arkansas, UT coach Pat Summitt has paired veteran players with freshmen in the hopes of inspiring a better overall effort to accompany the Lady Vols' flair for finishing games.

"Hopefully we can bring some consistency, who we are and how we're going to play,'' Summitt said. "There hasn't been much of a pattern for us."