Auburn dismantles No. 15 Arkansas for first SEC win
Keyshawn Hall scored 30 points, KeShawn Murphy had 16 points and 10 rebounds, and the host Auburn Tigers cruised to a 95-73 victory over the No. 15 Arkansas Razorbacks for their first SEC win Saturday.
Elyjah Freeman added 13 points and Kevin Overton scored 10 for the Tigers (10-6, 1-2 SEC), who bounced back from late losses to Georgia and Texas A&M in their previous two.
Darius Acuff Jr. scored 19 points, Meleek Thomas added 17 points and Malique Ewin had 13 points and 12 rebounds for the Razorbacks (12-4, 2-1), seeking to win their first three conference games for the first time since Nolan Richardson's 1997-98 team opened 3-0 and won nine of their first 10.
Hall was 11 of 14 from the field, 4 of 5 from distance, and had five assists. He scored a season-high 32 points in a 90-88 loss to Texas A&M on Tuesday, when Murphy's potential game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer was waved off after an official review.
The Tigers shot 56.7% from the field, just short of a season high, and limited Arkansas to 43.1%. Acuff was 7 of 16.
Auburn attacked the Arkansas interior, scoring 48 points in the paint and posting a 37-28 rebounding advantage. The Tigers turned nine offensive rebounds into 18 second-chance points.
Tigers' guard Tahaad Pettiford had eight points, seven assists and four rebounds while returning to the starting lineup after coming off the bench in the last two.
Auburn asserted itself early in the first half and kept pushing, using a 21-6 run for a 27-14 lead with 10:35 left in the half. Pettiford made a pair of layups and Hall had a 3-pointer and a three-point play during the stretch.
The Tigers had a 9-0 spurt late in the first half to make it 47-30. Hall made a layup and a dunk, Freeman hit a 3-pointer and Filip Jovic had a dunk in that stretch. Jovic returned after playing only seven minutes against A&M because of a knee injury.
Auburn led 49-34 at halftime and stretched it to 77-52 with nine minutes remaining, the Razorbacks' largest deficit of the season.
Arkansas staring forward Karter Knox did not score in seven minutes before leaving with a hip injury.