Auburn women’s basketball: Unique Thompson lives up to name in Houston loss

Auburn women’s basketball may have fallen to the Houston Cougars on Saturday night, but Unique Thompson’s 20-20 performance was the stuff of legend.

Unique Thompson finally gave Auburn women’s basketball fans a reason to not have a completely negative association with the word “twenty-twenty”. While the War Eagle thinks this year has ended on a pretty notable high note–fans are literally chanting on the Tigers from the safety of their socially distanced seats–it is understandable for many to cringe when they hear this year spoken out.

On the flip side, Thompson’s 26 point, 23 rebound game against the Houston Cougars in a 71-61 loss on the road was about as feel-good as possible. While the Tigers are surely set to face adversity as they traverse the SEC conference games, there is plenty to learn from early-season losses like this one.

The AAC is a legitimate basketball conference for both the men’s and women’s games but let us not forget…Geno Auriemma’s almighty UConn Huskies reside in the American Athletic Conference. They only won six of the last 11 national championships, including four in a row to cap off Barack Obama’s second term as President of the United States.

This is all to say that the Tigers are not knocked off the path any more than before this game. How could confidence be lost when the team’s star player just broke out in such a profound way? I mean try not ogling at these stats regarding Thompson’s feat:

"Thompson’s career night was the first 20-point, 20-rebound game by an Auburn player since 1993, when Lauretta Freeman had 30 points and 21 rebounds against Alabama. Thompson’s 23 rebounds tied for the third-most in a game in Auburn history, the most since Sharon Stewart had 23 against Vanderbilt in 1988. She now has three double-doubles in four games this year and 45 for her career."

Losses will happen in a college basketball season. Only the UConn’s of the world are able to stay undefeated, and Breanna Stewart was a transformative athlete for the Huskies.

None of that matters on the Plains, though. What does?

Unique Thompson is proving to be just that: unique.