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Arkansas survived a barrage of three-pointers and pulled away late to win its SEC opener at Auburn on Wednesday.

The Tigers made 15 of their 29 attempts from beyond the arc, but Desi Sills scored a career-high 21 points and JD Notae got hot in the second half to help the Razorbacks win 97-85 inside Auburn Arena.

The victory improves Arkansas to 9-0 for the first time since 1993-94, when it won its first 10 games and eventually won its first and only national championship. It is also the first SEC team in six years to win each of its first nine games by double digits.

Despite that dominance, the Razorbacks haven’t garnered much national respect because they’ve played one of the weaker schedules in the country. Wednesday marked their first game on the road and their game against a power conference opponent.

“I just feel like we came in as the underdog,” Sills said. “I know we haven't played like the best competition or nothing like that, but tonight we had to play for something to show why Arkansas is one of the best teams in the conference.”

Head coach Eric Musselman’s excitement was evident in his postgame Zoom session. He let out a scream to start off his radio interview with Chuck Barrett and capped his conversation with the media with an emphatic “Woo pig!”

In between, the second-year coach gave some insight as to why he was so excited. Not only did the 12-point win come in Arkansas’ first true challenge of the season, but it was also important considering the next two games - against No. 12 Missouri and at No. 7 Tennessee.

“Since I’ve been at Arkansas, for a regular season game, I thought this was by far the most important game that I have been a part of with this team,” head coach Eric Musselman said. “We have such great respect for how Missouri has played and Tennessee, knowing one’s in the top 10 and one’s just outside the top 10, so for this early in the year, it’s about as must-win as you could be staring at on the schedule.”

Both teams got off to blistering starts Wednesday night.

Moses Moody made a three-pointer just 13 seconds into the game and Arkansas raced out to a quick 7-0 lead, but Auburn fought back into it by catching fire from beyond the arc.

The Tigers’ first nine shots were from three-point range and they made 4 of their first 5. However, the Razorbacks stayed in front by making 8 of their first 11 shots and they led 18-12 before the first media timeout just five minutes into the game.

After leading the country in the category last season, Arkansas held its opponents to 27.5 percent from deep during non-conference play, which ranked 36th nationally coming into the night.

That didn’t discourage Auburn from repeatedly firing up threes, as it ended up shooting 9 of 17 (52.9 percent) in the first half. Sophomore Devin Cambridge was 3 of 4 himself, helping keep the Tigers within striking distance.

Despite how well Auburn was shooting, Musselman decided not to change up his defensive game plan, which stressed creating turnovers and sometimes led to open looks from deep for the Tigers.

“They got hot and I pretty much made the decision that we were going to keep defending like we had been,” Musselman said. “We went into the game with a game plan and they never really took the lead and we felt as the game progressed, if we could chase down some of those long rebounds that we still liked the tempo and pace of the way the game was going.”

Arkansas actually managed to extend its lead to 10 with a three-pointer by Connor Vanover with 9:39 left in the half, at which point it was 13 of 19 (68.4) from the floor.

That’s when the Razorbacks went cold, though. They missed five straight three-pointers before Sills ended a more than three-minute scoring drought by driving to the basket and finishing a tough layup.

A few more misses by Arkansas allowed the Tigers to eventually pull even, with Jamal Johnson knocking down a three-pointer to tie it up 34-34.

Luckily for the Razorbacks, Sills heated up down the stretch. He made a trio of threes in the final 1:40 in the half, including a pair from really deep, to cap a 16-point first-half outburst.

“It felt good because once I hit one, I feel like the other shots are going to fall. I mean, I work on that every day in my workout at 8 o'clock in the morning, so it's like practice makes perfect. It showed today.

Johnson answered the last Sills three by knocking down a jumper at the buzzer to make it 47-41 at halftime. It would have been closer had the Tigers been better at the free throw line, where it made just 2 of 9.

Early in the second half, Auburn used an 8-0 spurt capped by yet another three by Cambridge - who finished with 15 points on 5-of-6 shooting from deep - to pull within 1.

That’s when Notae heated up. He made a couple of threes to give Arkansas some breathing room and ended up scoring 19 of his 21 points after halftime. He was 5 of 11 from the floor in the second half and consistently got to the free throw line, where he was 7 of 9.

“He stunk in the first half,” Musselman said with a smile. “I don’t know what he was doing or what he thinking or who he was passing to - whether it was our guys or their guys - he was discombobulated. He’s like a home run hitter. He’s going to strike out or hit a grand slam. That’s kind of what he is right now, but I love him.”

After a couple of ill-advised quick three-point attempts on Arkansas’ end, Cambridge knocked down a three and Allen Flanigan - a Little Rock native - made a couple of free throws to tie the game at 74-74 with 7:30 remaining.

However, the Tigers could never get over the hump. Vanover had a put-back dunk to regain the lead and start a 10-0 for Arkansas that prominently featured Davonte Davis.

The lightly used freshman got extended minutes in the second half with Justin Smith out because of an ankle injury and Jalen Tate limited because of foul trouble. He made the most of it.

In a three-minute span, Davis made a hustle play to keep the ball in bounds on an offensive rebound that eventually led to a couple of Moody free throws, grabbed an offensive board after a missed free throw, created a turnover on defense and then knocked down a jumper that pushed the Razorbacks’ lead to 10.

“I thought he was really, really important and vital, his 13 minutes that he played,” Musselman said. “At halftime, I made a decision that I was going to play him some of the minutes that were going to be not used by Smith and I thought he did a great job.”

Auburn wouldn’t go quietly, though, as Johnson - who finished with a team-high 21 points - scored five points in 30 seconds to cut Arkansas’ lead in half with just over two minutes remaining.

The Razorbacks made only two more shots from the floor the rest of the way, but frequently got to the free throw line. They made 9 of 11 attempts from the charity stripe in the final 2:02, finishing off a night it made 24 of 31 (77.4 percent).

“They made a run and part of winning in the SEC and part of winning on the road was you’ve got to finish the game,” Musselman said. “We had lineups out there that we’ve never had and I thought the guys stepped up to the challenge and did a really, really good job.”

Three of those free throws in the closing seconds were made by Sills, giving him 23 points. That surpassed his previous high of 21 points set in a road loss at Georgia last season.

He was 8 of 15 from the floor, including 4 of 7 from deep, and made 3 of 6 free throws while adding six rebounds, two steals and an assist.

“He mixed in his three ball with dribble drives and for him to go to the line six times was phenomenal,” Musselman said. “The other thing too with Desi tonight, I was really proud he had four offensive rebounds.”

In addition to his 23 points and Notae’s 21, the Razorbacks also got double-digit scoring efforts from Vanover (17 points), Moody (16) and Tate (12).

For Moody, it was his ninth time in nine career games that he’s reached double figures. Even though he was just 4 of 11 from the field and 2 of 6 from deep, Musselman said he was “off the charts great.”

“How many freshmen play 38 minutes and 27 seconds in their first SEC game?” Musselman said. “Phenomenal. He started the game off aggressively offensively, knocked down a couple quick shots, and then he didn’t force things.”

Arkansas will have a couple of days to prepare before welcoming Missouri to Fayetteville for its SEC home opener and first game of the new year Saturday. Tip off is scheduled for 11 a.m. CT on CBS.

“Tonight was a good example of what we can do being able to go on the road to start SEC play,” Vanover said. “It doesn't stop there. We've got Missouri coming up, Tennessee after that, so we’ve just got to keep our foot on the pedal and keep going."