This Sunday, the Auburn Tigers (14-15, 3-12) will attempt to close out the season on a high note on the road against the Arkansas Razorbacks (11-19, 0-15).
Following a rough loss against the No. 16 Kentucky Wildcats at home last Thursday, the Tigers will face the Razorbacks who have not won a conference matchup this season. An Auburn win would bring their conference win total higher than last season's at four, and would be their second straight road conference win after a 13 game drought.
The Razorbacks, who have not won a game since December 20, will be fighting for pride and hoping to avoid a winless conference season.
“They’re a really good basketball team and they’re probably going to do some special things in the postseason,” Auburn coach Larry Vickers said of Kentucky's performance against the Tigers. “Our seniors, we want to celebrate. Not everybody wants to join a program year one, especially in the SEC. I appreciate them for that. I felt like this was one we could’ve sneaked today... We got off to a super slow start,” Vickers said. “After that we played them evenly. Against a team that good, you have to be good for 40 minutes.”
Khady Leye had a dominant performance against Kentucky, leading the Tigers in scoring with 20 points, 16 of which coming in the second half after going 9 of 12 against Kentucky's Clara Strack. Leye also had eight rebounds and one assist. Harrisoum Koulibaly had double digits as well with 13 points, and Kaitlyn Duhon had five steals contributing to 17 total turnovers for Auburn on the night.
“The last three weeks, Khady’s begun to separate herself and say y’all can come to me offensively,” Vickers said. “She’s starting to separate herself from a scoring component and that’s good to build on moving forward.”
Additionally, the Tigers were able to match the Wildcats in scoring during the second half of the matchup 16-16, bolstering Vickers' comments about the importance of starting fast.
The Razorbacks have had a rough 2026, not winning a single matchup and struggling to pick up a single conference win. Taleyah Jones, a transfer from Oral Robert, leads the Razorbacks with 16.9 points per game. The Razorbacks as a whole are averaging 70.6 points per game and are allowing 76.5.
With Auburn currently sitting at next-to-last in the conference, a win against the Razorbacks will solidify the No. 14 seed in the SEC tournament, whereas the Razorbacks have already locked in the No. 16 seed. An Auburn win would also snap an eight-game regular-season losing streak against the Razorbacks and be their 25th win in the series, which the Tigers currently lead 24-23. Auburn has not won in Fayetteville since 2019 and would also give Auburn its first road win streak in the SEC since 2019.
The Auburn Tigers will face off against the Arkansas Razorbacks at 1:00 p.m. CST on March 1, 2026, in Fayetteville, Arkansas. This will be the Tigers' last regular-season matchup of the 2026 season.
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Braden is a freshman majoring in Aviation Management. He started with the Plainsman in fall 2025.
