Auburn women’s basketball just didn’t have it Thursday night.

The now 9-5 Tigers couldn’t consistently score, struggled to defend and were dominated in points off turnovers, an area they usually specialize in.

All those things resulted in an 85-58 loss to Ole Miss, as Auburn starts Southeastern Conference play on a sour note.

“I’m just really disappointed in our turnovers,” Auburn head coach Johnnie Harris said after the game. “Twenty-nine turnovers, and they’re just poor decision making. It wasn’t so many being forced. It was just bad, bad decision making.”

Points off turnovers were what kept Auburn well out of reach and incapable of ever making the game competitive. Ole Miss finished the game with 37 points off 29 Auburn turnovers, becoming only the second team to outscore the Tigers in that category this season.

Points were always going to be hard to come by for Auburn, facing an Ole Miss defense that leads the country in fewest points allowed per game (46.7). What was more of a surprise was how successful the Rebels were offensively to start the game.

Ole Miss scored 26 points in the first quarter, the most Auburn has given up in a quarter this season. Alot of that early offense came as a product of Auburn’s mistakes.

Fourteen of Ole Miss’ first quarter points came off turnovers. That combined with a few uncharacteristic missed assignments allowed most of the Rebels’ points to come with relative ease, shooting 64% from the field in the first ten minutes.

The transition points mostly coming off turnovers remained Ole Miss’ main source of offense throughout the game, never letting Auburn gain any semblance of control.

“One of the things that makes us who we are is we score off of people’s turnovers,” Ole Miss head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said after the game. “Coming into tonight, our defense was the best in the country, and so that’s something that we take pride of. So, when we can get out in transition, we’re hard to beat because we have multiple ball handlers, and we can finish real well at the rim.”

For Auburn, the loss comes at a time when the team is already reeling from the number of injuries that seems to keep piling up. The Tigers were without star transfer Taliah Scott for the ninth straight game due to a wrist injury, someone who could give a much-needed spark to Auburn’s backcourt offensively.

Scott is averaging 20.3 points per game in her three appearances this season, shooting 50% from 3. Not having her feels especially painful on a night where Auburn made zero 3-pointers, and attempted just three.

She’s not the only hit the backcourt has taken either. Veteran guard Kaitlyn Duhon hasn’t played since suffering an injury in the fourth quarter of Auburn’s Nov. 30 loss to Kansas, and Harris announced after Thursday’s game that Duhon is no longer with the program.

Players such as Taylen Collins, Syriah Daniels and Celia Sumbane all played against Ole Miss, but came into the game battling injuries and haven’t been able to practice at full speed.

“I thought we played like we practiced. We’ve been having to walk through and that’s not who we are as a basketball team, like we have to get after it,” Harris said. “I got to get some people healthy enough to get after it in practice so we can translate that to the game.”

Harris added that Auburn has been forced to practice with as few as six players, something that is far from ideal when preparing for teams in the SEC.

The lack of reps and decreased time practicing with a full group could explain some of the sloppiness that was on display Thursday night. However, Harris didn’t want to use that as an excuse, pointing instead to the number of unforced errors Auburn had.

“I’d say it is, but we didn’t run a whole lot that’s different,” Harris said when asked if the lack of numbers in practice led to the increase in turnovers. “I was slowing it down, I was calling the play to get the ball into DeYona [Gaston] and then sometimes we would come down and come in transition and not slow it down and turn it over. And to me, those are unforced turnovers, because we have a plan. We have to stick with our plan.”

Harris described Gaston as “the one bright spot” against Ole Miss and it’s hard to argue with that sentiment. The Texas transfer had her third 30-point game of the season Thursday night, accounting for more than half of Auburn’s points.

She was Auburn’s only consistent source of offense, scoring efficiently around the rim and shooting 17 free throws in the game. While her performance was something positive, it feels bleak when a player can score 30 points, and the team still loses by 27.

Circumstances aren’t working in Auburn’s favor right now. The offense is naturally going to stall when one of your top two scorers isn’t playing, and that’s only compounded when you can only prepare with six players.

When asked about Scott’s status after the game, Harris didn’t give a clear answer on her timetable, saying her return will be a “doctor’s decision.” As for the rest of the players battling through injuries, getting them back to full health is something that takes time. Unfortunately for Auburn, there isn’t much time to rest and recover when you’re facing the buzzsaw of SEC play.

Next up is LSU, a team Auburn got a signature win against last season, but one that ranks No. 6 in the country and is one of the most talented groups the Tigers will face all season.

It’s likely an even tougher matchup for an Auburn team that could use a break more than anything. Harris understands that Auburn doesn’t have that luxury, but also knows that competing while undermanned against top competition is a proposition that will never work in Auburn’s favor.

“Just got to get some people back healthy,” Harris said. “We’ve got to be able to get people in practice, and that’s not an excuse, like we got to come out and play, but that’s what it is.”

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m