Without head coach Johnnie Harris, Auburn survived.

Harris missed the game with an illness and assistant coach Damitria Buchanan stepped into the role, leading Auburn to a 71-62 victory over South Alabama in her head-coaching debut.

"Coming into today, we had to deal with a little bit of adversity when it came to bodies and coaches," Buchanan said. "We were able to pull it out, I credit everyone in our program for being able to work together to get this dub."

Auburn was also without Romi Levy, Precious Johnson and Mya Pratcher, who all missed the game with an illness. Down three players and a coach, Aicha Coulibaly and Kaitlyn Duhon both scored in double figures to lead the Tigers.

The Tigers scored the first basket, and the Jaguars played catch-up with Auburn throughout the first. South Alabama tied the game multiple times, but never put it together well enough to take the lead in the first quarter.

Once the second quarter started, it was a different story.

South Alabama fired off an 8-0 run to take a 20-16 lead to open the second. Auburn responded in an even larger way, outscoring the Jaguars 17-1 over the next five minutes of play.

The run helped send the Tigers into the locker rooms with a 35-27 halftime lead.

Coulibaly scored 10 of her team-best 19 points in the third, as Auburn matched South Alabama's offensive output in the third quarter. The deficit remained at eight heading into the fourth, where Honesty Scott-Grayson finally found the scorecard.

Traditionally, Scott-Grayson is close behind Coulibaly in scoring. On Thursday, it was the Freshman Duhon.

In her second career game, Duhon put up 17 points and grabbed seven rebounds. What was working for the freshman?

"Crashing the boards and knowing that I had way more energy than the other players to hustle and scramble to the ball," Duhon said.

Auburn is back in action next Wednesday hosting Georgia Tech. The Tigers upset the Yellow Jackets on their home court last season and look to claim victory again.