No. 13 Arkansas falls at No. 22 Auburn, 72-59
The No. 13 Arkansas Razorbacks could not overcome a bad offensive performance with its defense Saturday evening, as they fell to No. 22 Auburn, 72-59, inside Neville Arena.
Arkansas freshman Anthony Black gave his best effort in the second half with 18 points in the final 20 minutes, but it wasn't enough. The Hogs shot just 33.9% from the field, 12.5% from three and they were 19 of 32 from the free throw line.
The Razorbacks brought down 17 offensive rebounds, but they scored just eight second chance points off of them. Arkansas won the battle on the boards, 45-32, but lost the turnover battle, 14-8.
Black scored 23 points and Ricky Council IV added 14, as the pair were the only two Hogs to score more than six points in the contest.
Here's a recap of Arkansas' third loss of the season, and second defeat out of three conference games so far.
Auburn point guard Wendell Green Jr. opened the game with a 4-point play, and he drained another three a few possessions later to give him all of the Tigers' first seven points.
By the first media timeout, Auburn held an 11-7 advantage, but the pace of the game was furious and the crowd at Neville Arena was intense.
A turnover by Black turned into a three from Allen Flanigan that gave Auburn its largest lead of the first six minutes, 16-10.
A 3:18 field goal drought by Arkansas was ended on a lob from Black to Makhel Mitchell that cut the Auburn lead to four. Mitchell fouled on the other end to send Green to the line with his team up 18-14 going into the under-12 timeout.
Flanigan's second triple of the game put the Tigers up by 10 with 10:53 to go in the game. Arkansas countered with a 5-point run over the next 1:57 to trim the Auburn lead back to five.
By the under-8 timeout, Arkansas had three players with two fouls each — Black, Davonte Davis and Kamani Johnson — and Auburn led 26-19.
Arkansas took advantage of a 6:39 Auburn field goal drought and brought the game to 28-24 with 4:14 left. The Razorbacks then ended the first half making just two of their last 11 from the field. Auburn closed out the first 20 minutes on an 8-1 run to take a 36-35 lead into the locker room.
A dunk from Broome on the Tigers' first possession of the second half them their largest lead of the game to that point, 38-27. Auburn went up by 15, but Black trimmed it to 10 at the under-16 timeout with a 5-0 run by himself.
Black had scored 11 of Arkansas' 13 second half points by the 10:50 mark, but the Hogs were still trailing by double-digits, 51-38, by the point. A pair of free throws from Black just before the midway point of the second half made it a 10-point deficit for the Hogs.
Though Arkansas stuck around, a 3-pointer from Jaylin Williams and a dunk from Johni Broome on the next Auburn possession kept the Tigers with a comfortable 13-point lead with 4:31 to play.
Council followed a slam from Broome with a 3-pointer to trim the Auburn lead to 10 with 2:28 to go, but Green answered with a layup on the following possession for the Tigers.
Broome drew a technical foul following a block, and Black hit both free throws to cut the deficit back to 10. A tip in from Johnson cut the lead to single-digits in what felt like forever, but it was too little, too late with just over a minute to play.
A turnover from Davis with 40 seconds to play all but sealed the deal on a 72-59 loss for the Razorbacks.
Up next for the Hogs will be another tough test with No. 7 Alabama coming to Fayetteville on Wednesday. Arkansas and the Crimson Tide will tipoff at 6 p.m. CT on ESPN2.
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