This season, defense has been the main reason for Auburn’s struggles. Saturday night inside Auburn Arena, it was the offense.
Auburn shot just 37 percent (23-of-62) from the floor and fell 79-68 to Arkansas.
Arkansas grabbed a 29-28 lead with 4:32 left in the first half, and never trailed again, cruising to its fifth straight win.
“I thought our guys had a good preparation,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said. “We had a good week, our kids really wanted this one. I thought we were ready. We just didn’t execute. I thought our effort was there. I felt good going in that we could do some things.”
“We prepared for their zone, and in practice we were lights out. Then in the game, we just didn’t execute our spacing and our timing.”
Auburn was led by Jared Harper who scored 17 points and dished out three assists. The freshman point guard was 6-of-13 from the floor and 3-of-6 from beyond the arc.
Arkansas finished 29-of-58 from the floor, out-scored Auburn 36-24 in the paint and out-rebounded the Tigers 41-33. The Tigers were never closer than six in the second half.
“I don’t think our problem was that much on the defensive end tonight,” freshman Mustapha Heron said. “I think as a team we don’t think that our problem was that much. We covered their stuff pretty well. Offensively, we just didn’t have the right patience and right spacing the whole game.”
Heron scored 16 points for Auburn and grabbed six rebounds. The Waterbury, Connecticut native was 5-of-10 shooting, and knocked down two threes.
The loss dropped Auburn to 3-5 at home in conference play. The Tigers have as many road conference victories as they do home conference wins.
“One of the things I’m probably the most disappointed in is we just haven’t defended our home floor, particularly in conference play,” Pearl said.
Auburn shot 52 percent (12-of-23) from the free throw line, while the Razorbacks made 16-of-20 (80 percent). The Hogs’ bench out-scored Auburn’s 27-18.
“You can’t shoot 52 percent from the foul line and beat a team going to the NCAA Tournament,” Pearl said.
Freshmen Anfernee McLemore and Danjel Purifoy scored eight points apiece for the Tigers. They combined for 13 rebounds as McLemore grabbed a team-high eight rebounds.
Arkansas (22-7, 11-5) was led by Jaylen Barford who scored 20 points and grabbed four rebounds. Senior Dusty Hannahs had 18 points for the Razorbacks, knocking down seven of his 14 attempts from the floor.
The loss dropped Auburn to 17-12 overall and 6-10 in the SEC. With just two games remaining in the regular season, it appears Auburn is destined for a spot in the Wednesday night play-in games in the SEC Tournament.
The Tigers are in 11th place in the SEC, one game behind Texas A&M and Tennessee. However, both the Aggies and Volunteers have the tiebreaker over Auburn.
“I told them prior to the LSU game, “We’ve gotta go 3-1, including a win over Georgia.” That is what we have to do as far as how I looked at it,” Pearl said. “That means we have to win our last two games to once again, be in position where we can pretty much do what we thought we could do. We are still in position for the postseason, but obviously we are disappointed we didn't get that signature home win.”
Auburn will take on Georgia Wednesday night in Athens at 5:30 p.m. CST on the SEC Network.
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