Auburn routs No. 15 Arkansas 95-73, earns first SEC victory

AUBURN, Ala. – Playing its best game of the season, Auburn dominated No. 15 Arkansas 95-73 behind 32 points from Keyshawn Hall Saturday at raucous Neville Arena, the Tigers’ first SEC victory.  

“Another unbelievable environment, another sellout,” Auburn coach Steven Pearl said. “A phenomenal result. Our guys did a really good job of executing the game plan. Our defense answered the bell in this game. The challenge now is we’ve got to do that every night. We beat a top 15 team; we can’t let that get us too high. We’ve got to stay locked in and continue to work to get better.”

“You’ve got to give Auburn credit,” Arkansas coach John Calipari said. “They were desperate and they played that way. We got outfought. They were beating us to every loose ball, every 50-50 rebound, 80-20 toward us, they still got the ball. They took it to us in every way.

“We’ve lost to three top 10 teams, and we had a chance to beat all three. We had no chance today.”

Hall registered Auburn’s first back-to-back 30-point games since Wesley Person in 1994, making 4 of 5 3-pointers and going 11-for-14 from the field. Hall filled the box score with five assists, two blocked shots, two rebounds and a steal.

“My father told me you have to be versatile player.,” Hall said. “You can’t be one-dimensional. I try to do a little bit of everything. We said we were going to play for the fans. They deserve it. We’re going to keep playing hard for them.”

“I’m more pleased with his defense,” Pearl said. “He did such a good job of walling up, getting vertical and not slapping down. He’s such a talented scorer, he can do it in a number of different ways.”

KeShawn Murphy recorded his first Auburn double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds. 

“It meant a lot to me,” Murphy said. “What meant the most to me was the urgency we had as a team on defense and the will we had to win.”

Elyjah Freeman scored13 points and grabbed six rebounds. Kevin Overton scored 10 points. Tahaad Pettiford added six points, a game-high seven assists and four rebounds. 

Leading by 15 at the half, Murphy answered an early Arkansas score with a 3-pointer.

Hall stretched Auburn’s lead to19 points with a corner 3-pointer and a two-handed transition dunk.

Freeman’s 3-pointer put the Tigers on top by 20 before Hall reached the 25-point mark with a layup.

Taking a turn at point guard when Pettiford rested for a few minutes, Hall recorded his fifth assist by passing out of a double-team to Blake Muschalek for a wide-open 3-pointer.

Overton gave Auburn a 25-point lead with Auburn’s ninth 3-pointer of the game.

“We had to get that one. It didn’t matter who it was against,” Pearl said. “You can’t dig yourself into an 0-3 hole in this conference and expect to have any real success. A really important win against a top 15 opponent and a really good Arkansas team.”

Hall scored 18 points in the first half on 7-of-9 shooting, including 3-of-4 from 3-point range, to give Auburn a 49-34 halftime lead.

“Hall played a heck of a game,” Calipari said. “They went at him in the first half and we didn’t really have an answer.”

Hall hit a pair of 3s for the Tigers’ first six points, a preview of coming attractions from the 6-foot-7 forward. 

After five lead changes in the first five minutes, Auburn grabbed a lead it would not relinquish on an 8-0 run that Freeman ended with a dunk after Filip Jovic’s steal and downcourt pass, leading to a Calipari timeout.

Darius Acuff Jr. hit a pair of 3-pointers to bring the Razorbacks within two before Auburn took a double-digit lead on an 11-0 run that included 3-point plays from Jovic and Hall, and a Hall 3-pointer. 

Auburn ended its first-half scoring with three straight dunks from Jovic, Hall and Freeman to put the Tigers on top by 17 before Acuff hit a pair of free throws in the closing seconds to cut Auburn’s lead to 15 at intermission.

Auburn outrebounded Arkansas 22-12 in the first half and had 11 assists against only five turnovers.

Acuff scored a team-high 19 points for Arkansas (12-4, 2-1).

Auburn (10-6, 1-2) plays at Missouri Wednesday at 6 p.m. CT before returning to Neville Arena next Saturday at 5 p.m. CT to play South Carolina for the Nothing But Neon game that will include free neon t-shirts for Auburn University students. 

Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on X: @jeff_shearer

GAME NOTES

• Auburn used the starting lineup of Tahaad Pettiford, Kevin Overton, Keshawn Hall, KeShawn Murphy and Sebastian Williams-Adams. Overton and Hall have started 15 games this season, Pettiford has 14 starts on the year, Murphy has started 13 times on the season and freshman Williams-Adams has started nine of the first 16 games of his career.
• Today is the 78th consecutive sellout at Neville Arena (9,121).
• The victory is Auburn’s second AP Top 15 win of the season and its first since defeating No. 14 St. John’s 85-74 in Las Vegas as part of the Players Era Championship on Nov. 26.
• Auburn’s 22-point win matches the Tigers fourth-largest win over Arkansas in the 62-game series between the two teams. Three of Auburn’s five most lopsided wins in the series have come in the last 10 games between the Tigers and Razorbacks.
• Auburn has scored over 90 points in six of its eight home games this season and has scored at least 83 points in every game at Neville Arena on the season. The Tigers are averaging 95.9 points and are shooting 53.0 from the floor and 38.2 percent from 3-point range at home this season.
• Auburn’s 95 points are the most points Arkansas has allowed this season, surpassing No. 8 Houston’s 94 points against the Razorbacks on Dec. 20.
• Auburn shot 56.7 percent (34-of-60) for the game. The Tigers shot over 50 percent in both halves – 57.6 percent (19-of-33) in the first half and 55.6 percent (15-of-27) in the second half. It is the seventh time Auburn has shot at least 50 percent in a game this season, including the first time in SEC play, and the fourth time the Tigers have shot at least 50 percent in both halves in a game.
• Auburn recorded 20 assists in the victory. It is the third time the Tigers have registered at least 20 assists in a game this season. It is the most assists Auburn has had in an SEC game since recording 24 assists against Alabama in the regular season finale last year.
• Auburn went 10-of-22 from 3-point range. It is the sixth time the Tigers have made double-digit 3-pointers this season and the first time in SEC play.
• Auburn placed four players in double figures led by Hall’s 32 points. He finished 11-of-14 from the floor, 4-of-5 from long range and 6-of-6 from the free throw line, and he added five assists, two rebounds, two blocks and a steal in 36 minutes. After scoring 32 points against Texas A&M on Wednesday night, he became the first Tiger to record consecutive 30-point games since Wesley Person scored 34 points against Ole Miss and 30 points versus Tennessee on Jan. 19 & 22, 1994. Hall reached 1,500 career points with his free throw at the 11:25 mark of the first half.
• KeShawn Murphy recorded his sixth career double-double and his first of the season with 16 points and 10 rebounds to go with an assist and a steal in 27 minutes. He went 6-of-10 overall, including 2-of-3 from 3-point range and 2-of-2 from the foul line.
• Elyjah Freeman scored in double figures for the fourth time in the last six games finishing with 13 points on 4-of-8 field goals, 2-of-3 3-pointers and 3-of-4 from the charity stripe, and he added six rebounds, three assists and two steals in 27 minutes. He is averaging 14.5 points over his last six contests.
• Overton scored in double figures for the fifth consecutive game as he scored 10 points on 3-of-8 shooting, including one 3-pointer, and 3-of-4 from the free throw line to go with four rebounds, one assist and one steal in 29 minutes. It is his 41st career game in double figures, including 11 this season. Overton is averaging 18.0 points over his last five games.
• Pettiford finished with an SEC career-high seven assists to go with eight points, four rebounds and two steals in 30 minutes. 
•  The win was the largest margin of victory vs a ranked opponent since No. 1 Auburn defeated No. 15 Mississippi State, 88-66, on 1/14/2025.
• Auburn's victory was also the second-largest margin of victory for an unranked Auburn team vs a ranked opponent -  24-point win vs No. 12 Alabama on 1/23/2007 (81-57).
• The win also tied for the third-largest margin of victory in school history vs a ranked team.