Auburn basketball found themselves deep in a hole in the second half, and nearly dug their way out of it.
After leading by four at halftime, No. 10 Arkansas built a 15-point lead over the first six minutes of the second half to take a 54-39 lead over the Tigers. From that point on, Auburn slowly cut into the Razorback lead where they eventually took a lead with less than a minute to go.
But a late jumper by Arkansas’ Nick Smith Jr. ended Auburn’s comeback attempt and helped Arkansas escape with a 76-73 win in the first game of the SEC Tournament at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
Auburn stayed close with Arkansas in a few statlines including field goals, three-pointers, and free throws, but the biggest discrepancy was in the rebounding department. Arkansas created 18 more opportunities for points than Auburn did, out-rebounding the Tigers, 37-19.
The Tigers were dominated at the glass through the first half, being out-rebounded 19-7. But Auburn was able to stay close by making 11-of-14 free throws and connecting on 43% of their shots.
Auburn scored the game’s first points thanks to two made free throws from [autotag]Jaylin Williams[/autotag]. However, Arkansas stormed out to a 10-2 lead at the under-16 media timeout. Makhi Mitchell, Devo Davis, and Anthony Black were all perfect from the field through the first four minutes of the game, and the Razorbacks’ defense held Auburn to 0% shooting from the field, going 0-for-4.
Auburn was able to get back into the game two minutes later by going on an 8-2 run to cut Arkansas’ lead to 12-10 with 13:47 remaining in the half. By the 10:47 mark in the half, Arkansas built a 21-15 lead. Six Razorbacks had points during the stretch, while [autotag]Wendell Green Jr.[/autotag] claimed nine of Auburn’s 15 points. Arkansas also out-rebounded Auburn 9-3 over the first 10 minutes of the game.
Arkansas continued their hot shooting as the first half reached the 3:43 mark, as they built a 34-25 lead by shooting 57% from the field as opposed to Auburn’s 39% effort. Over the final two minutes of the half, Auburn went on a 6-0 run to cut into Arkansas’ advantage, 37-33 at halftime.
The Razorbacks got off to a hot second-half start by building a lead as large as 15 points before Auburn began a run of their own. Arkansas’ Anthony Black made a jumper with 14:04 remaining in the second half to give the Razorbacks the 54-39 lead before Auburn pieced together a 6-0 run over the next minute to cut the lead to 54-45.
Auburn continued chipping away, cutting the lead to four points with 9:15 left in the game, and found a way to cut the lead to 70-67 with three minutes remaining before taking a 73-72 lead inside of a minute to go. However, Nick Smith Jr. delivered the dagger by drilling a jumper with 0:16 left in the game to end Auburn’s comeback bid.
Auburn will now return to the Plains and await their NCAA Tournament fate, which will be revealed on Sunday.
[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbyzb4ahnasj2m3 player_id=01f5k5y2jb3twsvdg4 image=]
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1365]