Auburn women's basketball opens season in Charlotte

Auburn women’s basketball begins its first season under new head coach Larry Vickers Monday night.

The Tigers open their season on the road against Charlotte at 4:30 p.m. CST. It’s the first time since 2017 that Auburn’s opened its season in a true road game. Vickers is excited to get going and implement his vision for the program under his leadership.

“I think for us, going into this year, with Auburn women’s basketball, we’re just trying to, you hate to use this word as a coach, build culture, build consistency,” Vickers said. “Try and make sure that all the players and all the coaches are on the same page, building vision.”

The Larry Vickers file

Vickers took the Auburn job following 10 seasons at his alma mater, Norfolk State. While with the Spartans, he accumulated an overall record of 177-99, led the program to three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and won four straight conference titles.

He did so by boasting one of the best defenses in the country. In each of the last four seasons, Norfolk State was in the top-30 scoring defenses in the country. His 2022-23 team was first in the nation in scoring defense, allowing 50.7 points per game, while holding opponents to 31.5% from the field, which also ranked No. 1 in the country.

Now with Auburn, he’s looking to translate that success.

Completely new Auburn team

Auburn returns just two players from last season — guard Kaitlyn Duhon and forward Syriah Daniels. Both players entered the transfer portal before withdrawing their names, and Duhon had even committed to play for Texas A&M at one point.

This team will consist of 10 newcomers. Seven transfers, one JUCO player and two freshmen make up the rest of the roster that Vickers will compete with this season.

Player	Class	Previous School	PPG (2024-25)	REB/G (2024-25)	A/G (2024-25)
Agena Belloso (G)	Senior	Florida International	7.9	3.6	2.6
A’riel Jackson (G)	Senior	Cincinnati	6.8	2.4	1.7
Mya Petticord (G)	Senior	Rutgers	6.7	2.1	1.4
Ja’Mia Harris (G)	Junior	Texas State	10.2	3.5	1.6
Quanirah Montague (F)	Junior	Mississippi State	4.6	3.7	0.4
Khady Leye (F)	Sophomore	Towson	9.9	7.2	1.1
Clara Koulibaly (F)	Junior	Gulf Coast State CC	12.0	6.2	0.5
Arek Angui (C)	Redshirt Freshman	UCF (Appeared in two games)	N/A	N/A	N/A
Sania Richardson (G)	Freshman	Ada HS (Okla.)	4-star prospect
Harissoum Coulibaly (G)	Freshman	Shining Star Sports Academy (Va.) — Originally from Paris, France	4-star prospect	No. 95 overall player in SportsCenter NEXT100

“We got started right after Memorial Day, and we’ve been working ever since,” Vickers said. “We’re excited. We’re really excited about Nov. 3 and what that’s going to look like for us and our program.”

Tip off is set for 4:30 p.m. CST on ESPN+ or radio broadcast on ESPN 106.7 FM.