A shorthanded Auburn squad was no match for No. 21 Arkansas, dropping its fourth consecutive game 88-75 at Bud Walton Arena on Saturday.
Arkansas marked the Tigers’ fourth straight Quad I game, as Auburn fell to 4-10 in such affairs.
Here are the biggest takeaways from the game:
No Keyshawn Hall
Auburn was without its leading scorer, Keyshawn Hall, against the Razorbacks on Saturday night.
Hall was listed as “OUT” on the SEC’s Availability Report on Friday, and head coach Steven Pearl shed some light on the situation on the Auburn Sports Network pregame show on Saturday.
“He’s out indefinitely,” Pearl said. “Key did not live up to the expectations and standards of our program this week.”
“The length and duration are up to him,” he added. “We’re hoping this is not something that needs to drag out longer than it needs to.”
Hall is averaging 20.7 points per game and tallied 32 points against the Razorbacks back in January.
KeShawn Murphy and Tahaad Pettiford fill the void
Without Hall on the floor, Auburn had to lean on someone to fill the void left by the league's second-leading scorer.
The Tigers got just that from Murphy and Pettiford – though, outside of that duo, there was not much to boast about.
Murphy, who entered this one averaging 12.5 points per game and nine boards, exploded for a career-high 22 points and 12 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season and second in the last week.
Entering this one with an average of 15.7 points per game in his career on the road, Pettiford logged his third consecutive 20-point game with 29 points on an 11-of-18 clip from the field and seven assists. The sophomore guard has found his footing offensively, averaging 25 points per game in his last three outings.
Outside of that duo, Elyjah Freeman was the highest scorer with nine points on a 3-for-10 mark from the floor.
Auburn recorded just four bench points on the night.
Arkansas comes out of the break ablaze
Once again, Auburn found itself facing a double-digit deficit before the break, but closed out the first half with a 12-8 advantage to trim Arkansas’ lead to six at the break.
The Razorbacks shot 57% from the field in the first stanza and missed only three shots from 2-point range. Coming out of the break, they vastly improved on those marks with a 15-2 run to stretch their lead to 21 with over 14 minutes remaining.
Auburn cut the lead back to single digits after a 9-2 run, but its momentum came to a halt after Kevin Overton fouled Billy Richmond on a fastbreak dunk.
The Razorbacks built their lead back up to double digits and rode it out the rest of the way.
Darius Acuff, Jr. too much; Richmond compliments
There’s a reason Acuff has been named SEC Freshman of the Week a league-record tying six times this season.
The SEC’s third-leading scorer and leader in assists had his way with Auburn on Saturday night with 31 points. He exploded for 20 second-half points and buried a barrage of threes to ignite the Razorbacks’ quick start to the second half. He finished his night with seven triples on 10 attempts.
Richmond was Acuff’s second-hand man on Saturday night, recording 25 points with a flurry of highlight plays in transition. He was 12-of-15 from the floor with three steals.
Tale of two games in the paint
In the first meeting of the season, Auburn torched Arkansas in the paint with a 48-28 advantage. The Tigers also out-rebounded the Razorbacks 38-27.
Auburn out-rebounded Arkansas on Saturday, 34-31, fueled by 15 offensive rebounds, but Arkansas owned a 52-34 advantage down low and shot 61% from 2-point range with 16 points off dunks and 32 on layups.
Auburn will stay on the road on Wednesday to face Mississippi State at Humphrey Coliseum at 8 p.m. on ESPN2 or ESPNU.
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