Auburn takes UM Holiday Tournament title

CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- DeWanna Bonner helped Auburn (No. 10 ESPN/USA Today, No. 9 AP) win its 14th straight and took home an MVP award for her effort.

Bonner had 18 points and eight rebounds to lead the Tigers to a 68-53 win over Miami on Tuesday night in the championship game and the senior was named the outstanding player of the UM Holiday Tournament.

Alli Smalley scored 16 points and Whitney Boddie had nine points, nine rebounds and eight assists for Auburn (14-0).

"I thought [Boddie] played a great two days of basketball," Auburn coach Nell Fortner said. "She is playing with a lot of confidence and she understands her teammates. Her and Alli have that back door working and she has it with Hobbs, too ... she understands their game."

Boddie often found Smalley outside the perimeter and gave Miami (9-4) trouble with her speed -- the point guard also had five steals.

At first, though, Auburn was too small against the Hurricanes' big lineup. Smalley, who is 5-foot-8, was often defending Miami's LaToya Drake or Shenise Johnson. Drake is 6-foot-2 and Johnson, who led Miami in scoring with 21 points, is 5-foot-11.

"They had a bigger lineup and we were small," Fortner said. "Then I subbed Keke [Carrier] back in the game and we just got a little bigger."

Carrier scored 14 points in 15 minutes.

"A point a minute -- that's trouble," Miami coach Katie Meier said. "Their offensive rebounds really broke our back."

So did lackluster shooting from 3-point range a number of turnovers. Miami only shot 26.7 percent from beyond the arc and turned it over 17 times -- leading to 14 points for Auburn.

The Hurricanes led at the half by two, 32-30, behind Johnson's 14 points.

"Number 42 -- she just had a hot hand and she was just knocking down everything," Bonner said. "Their outside shots were falling and they had a lot of confidence."

But Auburn went on a 17-4 run in the second half behind three 3-pointers by Smalley and didn't let its lead slip below six the rest of the way. Smalley finished 4-of-6 from behind the arc.

"I think we had a lot of mental breakdowns and I think fatigue played a lot of it," Johnson said.

Matching up against Carrier and Auburn's bigger post players took a toll.

"I think that took a lot of our energy. We played one of the more physical games of the year but we came out at half time and we didn't have the same energy. We hadn't played a team like Auburn this year and it takes 40 minutes of perfection," Meier said.