Before Thursday night’s game against Mississippi State, Auburn women’s basketball head coach Johnnie Harris set the bar high for her fifth-year senior guard Honesty Grayson-Scott.

“I told her before the game, ‘You’re not leaving this building if you don’t give me at least 24 points,’” Harris said. “I don’t even know where I got 24 points from, I just pulled a number.”

But for Grayson-Scott, in her final game at Neville Arena, Harris could’ve set the bar a bit higher if she wanted to as her veteran guard logged a career-high 32 points to lift Auburn to a crucial, 77-60 win over Mississippi State.

“We knew we had to get this one,” Harris said of Thursday’s matchup with the Bulldogs.

On Thursday morning, ESPN’s women’s basketball bracketologist Charlie Creme listed Auburn as the last team to squeak its way into the 68-team NCAA women’s basketball tournament.

And as that season-long goal inches closer and closer to becoming a reality with each Auburn win, it’s fitting that Grayson-Scott is at the center of it all and leading the charge.

“I think about Honesty having the opportunity to go pro last year — and she wanted to come back to help lead this team to the tournament,” Harris said. “I feel like she’s done everything she could to make that happen.”

On the season, Grayson-Scott stands as Auburn’s leading scorer with an average of 18.4 points per game — a number that stands as the second-best in the SEC behind LSU’s Angel Reese, who is averaging 19.1 points per game.

And like most nights, Grayson-Scott wasn’t paying attention to how many points she was putting up against the Bulldogs.

But once she eclipsed the 30-point mark, Auburn junior McKenna Eddings was quick to point it out.

“I actually knew I was somewhere at 30 because McKenna was screaming, ‘Thirty! Thirty!,’” Scott-Grayson said. “She was letting me know. I heard that.”

Scott-Grayson surpassed the 30-point mark with 1:25 to play as a made layup gave her her 30th and 31st point of the night, which tied her career high.

And as fate would have it, Scott-Grayson would get tagged on the way to rim and sent to the free throw line for an opportunity at a three-point play and a new career high on senior night.

The Tigers had been struggling from the charity stripe Thursday night, but when Scott-Grayson toed the line with an opportunity to make an already special night that much more special, there was no missing the free throw.

After the make, Scott-Grayson and her career-high 32 points walked off the floor of Neville Arena for the very last time and immediately embraced her head coach, who’d recruited her since she was in eighth grade.

“It was unreal,” Scott-Grayson said. “I’ve been through a lot with coach (Harris). A lot of hard work, dedication, buying into her system, her believing me and I appreciate her for that… her taking me in. Just having that faith in me and being a big part of this program.”

With her exit from the floor Thursday night, Scott-Grayson admits thinking, “this is it.”

Then that thought was immediately followed by a second thought.

“But we’re still not done,” Scott-Grayson said, echoing what she was thinking as she came off the court.

Auburn will head to Florida for its final regular season game of the season Sunday afternoon. With a win in Gainesville, the Tigers will likely still be sitting on the inside of the NCAA Tournament bubble with an opportunity to add to their case with a strong performance in the SEC Tournament, which is set to take place from March 6-10.

Then comes selection Sunday on March 17, when Auburn will hope to hear its name called for the first time in five years.

“It’s been five years for this program and this is a program that should be in the tournament. When I came here, my goal was to build a program — not just a team,” Harris said. ” And that has taken a little time but I think we’re getting there. And that’s the goal. The goal is to get in the tournament so it’ll be really special we’re able to do that this year.”