In a Valentine's Day heartbreaker, the Auburn Tigers (14-11, 5-7) fell to the No. 21 Arkansas Razorbacks (19-6, 9-3) in Fayetteville, Arkansas, in the two teams' second meeting of the season.
“We’ve got to come together, and we’ve got to limit our distractions off the floor,” Auburn head coach Steven Pearl said Saturday night after the game concluded. “You know, we’ve got to stop being put in positions where we have to make decisions to discipline guys. “If we can do that and really focus on basketball for a couple of weeks, this team’s shown that it has the ability to win big games.”
These comments come following the benching of Auburn star forward Keyshawn Hall. Hall was benched "indefinitely" ahead of the Arkansas match, last getting play time before the 12:38 mark of the second half of Auburn's mid-week matchup against No. 19 Vanderbilt, which Auburn also lost 84-76.
This benching came because Hall "did not live up to the standard and expectations of our program this week," according to Pearl. In Auburn's January 10 victory at home against the Razorbacks, Hall prospered, putting up 32 points.
Although it did not materialize into a win, several of Auburn's other key players had big nights, with star sophomore Tahaad Pettiford leading the team in scoring on the night with 29 points.
Pettiford has emerged in the Tigers' last three matches, especially, with this being his third straight game with 20+ points and his eighth of the season. Pettiford also put up seven assists, with this being his third time in the last four games having at least that many.
KeShawn Murphy had a busy night as well, setting a new career high in points scored at 22 while also putting up a double-double for the fourth time this season, tacking on 12 rebounds as well.
These rebounds contributed to him hitting 500 total in his career. Additionally Murphy and Pettiford both combined in the first half for 30 of Auburn's 32 points in the first half, and 41 of their first 45 in the game.
Elyjiah Freeman finished the match with close to a double-double, totaling nine points and nine rebounds, which is a career high for him in his time at Auburn.
Auburn also committed only seven turnovers on the night, marking their 11th time this season committing turnovers in the single digits, including six of its last seven games and now being their third straight.
Coming off of a Final Four season in the 2024-2025 campaign, Auburn had very high expectations for this season, especially after retaining Pettiford following his declaration for the 2025 NBA Draft.
The Tigers have had their ups and downs, facing ten AP Top 25 teams this season and going 3-7 in those games.
Auburn has only one more match this season against a currently ranked team, coming in their next match against the No. 25 Kentucky Wildcats.
The Tigers have shown that they can compete with top teams, beating out teams such as the Razorbacks in their first matchup and St. John's early in the season, but they will have to show life in their last six games of the season to stake their claim to a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
The Auburn Tigers will have a week off before their match against the No. 25 Kentucky Wildcats on February 21 at 7:30 PM CST in Neville Arena.
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Braden is a freshman majoring in Aviation Management. He started with the Plainsman in fall 2025.
