"I'll Forever Be An Auburn Tiger"

The Auburn Women's basketball Team played their last game for Head Coach Nell Fortner today. The Tigers lost to Florida 70-60 in the first round of the SEC Tournament.

Auburn Freshman Hasina Muhammad really shined in the Tigers' loss. She led all scoring with a career-high 20 points and she had nine rebounds with four blocked shots. Junior Blanche Alverson added 16 points along with seven rebounds.

But that's not the story. The real story here is that today's game was the end of a coaching era. It was the last game coached by legendary basketball coach Nell Fortner who officially retired at games end.

A World Champion and Olympic Gold Medal coach finished her career on The Plains. In eight seasons Nell Fortner was 145-106 with four post season appearances, one SEC Championship and was named National and SEC Coach of the Year.

Even though her Tigers struggled this year, her decision to retire came as a shock to the Auburn family. A very popular coach, Fortner said after the game that she was proud of her team's effort and added,

"Overall I'm most proud of everything that Auburn has meant to me and helped me accomplish. I think it just came to me in my life at the right time and hopefully I came into Auburn's life at the right time. I'll forever be an Auburn Tiger."

And the Auburn family will forever be grateful too ...

That Coach Nell Fortner came our way.