Auburn head coach Johnnie Harris knew her team would have its hands full against Arizona in the play-in round of the NCAA Tournament in Storrs, Connecticut Thursday night.

She knew that because Arizona reminded her of Auburn. And Auburn’s goal every night is to make things impossible-feeling with its suffocating defense.

“They’re almost like a twin team to us. They play pretty much the same style. They like to press a lot. They’ll throw some junk at you. They like to get up the floor and score quick,” Harris said of Arizona Tuesday. “Just looking at them, it’s eerie because we play the same way.”

And just as Harris expected, the Wildcats gave the Tigers a taste of their own medicine as Arizona applied the pressure early — poking at every Auburn pass and contesting every shot Auburn took.

Unfortunately for Auburn, the Tigers didn’t respond well to the challenge as they committed 23 turnovers in season-ending, 69-59 loss to the Wildcats.

By the end of the first half, Auburn had already coughed up the basketball 17 times, allowing Arizona to score 14 of its 27 first-half points off turnovers. By the game’s end, Arizona’s points off turnovers had swelled to 23.

While forcing turnovers was the payoff of Arizona’s aggressiveness, the approach did come at an expense as the Wildcats found themselves in foul trouble early.

By halftime, a pair of Arizona players in Bre Cunningham and Isis Beh had both committed three fouls — something that’s notable for any team, but certainly a team like Arizona, which entered the night with just eight players available players.

With Arizona’s foul trouble and short bench in the back of their minds, the Tigers started attacking the Wildcats by driving right at them in hopes of hearing more whistles blow. And they quickly did as Arizona’s Beh and Esmery Martinez both found themselves benched with four fouls apiece early in the second half.

But when all was said and done, Cunningham was the only Arizona player to foul out.

Meanwhile, on the opposing sideline, Auburn saw two players foul out down the stretch — sophomore Sydney Shaw and fifth-year senior Honesty Scott-Grayson.

Scott-Grayson, Auburn’s leading scorer on the season, fouled out in a critical part of the game with the Tigers trailing by seven with 2:10 minutes to play. Leading up to her fifth foul, Scott-Grayson was starting to find her groove having scored six of her 13 points in the fourth quarter.

From that point forward, with Auburn’s veteran leader and sparkplug on the bench, the Tigers were never able to tighten the gap any closer than five points.

Down the stretch, the Wildcats went on to tally five unanswered points to extend the lead out to 10 points — the same 10 point lead Arizona would go on to win with.

With the loss, Auburn ends the season 20-12 and can boast making the tournament for the first time in five years.

Meanwhile, Arizona (18-15) will advance into the first round of the NCAA Tournament, where they’ll meet sixth-seeded Syracuse Saturday.