Auburn 58, Harlem 50: Auburn’s pressure defense and fast-paced offense carried the Knights to a 19-point lead after three quarters against Harlem in the first round of the girls regional tournament Tuesday at Boylan High School.

Poor free throw shooting and turnovers in the final quarter, however, almost derailed Auburn, which held on for a 58-50 victory.

“I’m happy with the win, but we can do better than what we did today,” Auburn coach Zay Hoover said. “We have to eliminate our turnovers, and we have to fix our free throws. We are not executing like I want it to be.”

The Knights outscored Harlem 18-4 in the third quarter, hitting four 3s.

“Our confidence just got built up in the third quarter,” said Auburn guard Anita Amisi, who sank two of her three 3s during the period and contributed a couple of key steals. “Everybody was confident in their shots. We came out to play, and we did play.”

With a 48-29 lead entering the fourth quarter, the Knights struggled at the line, connecting on just four of 13 attempts.

Harlem sliced the deficit to 53-48 on a four-point play by Kristin Numbers with just under 2 minutes left. But, the Knights mustered enough offense down the stretch to seal the win.

“We started to put together the things that we know how to do well,” Harlem coach Luannna Kish said of the comeback.

Auburn grabbed a 16-10 first-quarter lead as Kapree McGowan scored seven of her 11 points.

Harlem fought back to tie the game at 25-all on Kortney Busekros’ 3 with 40 seconds left in the half.

Busekros came off the bench to hit three 3s in the second quarter and finished the night with a game-high 17 points.

The Knights scored the first 11 points of the third quarter for a 41-25 lead. Harlem finally scored with 4:31 left in the period and tallied just four points during the third.

This season Auburn defeated Harlem four times, each by nine points or fewer.

- Doug Goodman, rrstar.com