Auburn hands Arkansas a reality check in 95-73 win

AUBURN, Ala. — The Hogs walked into Neville Arena feeling pretty good about life. Three straight wins will do that to you. Auburn hadn’t won a league game yet, which usually feels like a polite invitation.

Turns out it was a trapdoor.

Arkansas took a 95-73 loss Saturday night that felt worse than the score, a reminder that SEC road games don’t care about rankings, vibes or what you did last week. The Razorbacks got pushed around, outworked and flat-out beaten by an Auburn team that played like it had something to prove.

John Calipari saw it coming the moment the ball went up.

“We had a great practice and a great shootaround, so I felt really good until I watched the game unfold,” Calipari said. “They were beating us to every loose ball, every 50-50 rebound. No, 80-20 toward us, they still got the ball. You can’t win that game.”

That pretty much summed it up.

Auburn shot 56.7% from the field, hit 10 three-pointers and controlled the glass. Arkansas shot a respectable 43.1%, but respect doesn’t travel well in this league.

The Tigers out-rebounded the Hogs 37-28, and most of those rebounds felt louder than the rest. Auburn turned missed shots into momentum, then turned momentum into separation.

By the second half, it wasn’t about strategy anymore. It was about survival.

Arkansas kept trying to make runs. Auburn kept answering with shots, rebounds or hustle plays that sucked the air out of the building — and out of the Razorbacks.

Auburn’s urgency flips the script early

Auburn played like a team tired of hearing about its record.

The Tigers jumped on Arkansas early, attacking the rim, spacing the floor and turning defensive stops into quick offense. The Razorbacks never looked comfortable, never looked settled, and never found a way to slow the game down.

Keyshawn Hall was the main problem Arkansas couldn’t solve. The senior forward scored 30 points on 11-of-14 shooting and hit four three-pointers. When a guy shoots it like that, the scouting report becomes more of a suggestion.

Hall didn’t force shots. He didn’t rush. He just kept finding space and finishing plays while Arkansas scrambled to keep up.

Auburn’s ball movement kept the Hogs chasing, and once the Tigers started hitting from the outside, the lane opened up even more. Arkansas tried switching. It tried helping. None of it mattered.

This wasn’t a fluke shooting night. Auburn earned its looks.

Calipari didn’t dodge it afterward.

“We’ve played other teams that played hard and were desperate and did it,” he said. “Give them credit. They were good today.”

That’s coach-speak for “they kicked us.”

Young Hogs produce, but holes remain

Arkansas didn’t completely disappear offensively.

Freshman guard Darius Acuff Jr. led the Razorbacks with 19 points. Fellow freshman Meleek Thomas added 17. Malique Ewin came off the bench and posted a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds.

Those numbers look fine on paper. They just didn’t move the needle enough.

The Hogs couldn’t string together stops. They couldn’t clean the glass. And when Auburn pushed the pace, Arkansas struggled to respond.

This is where youth shows up. Not in effort, but in consistency.

Arkansas had moments where it looked ready to make a game of it. Then Auburn grabbed a rebound it shouldn’t have, hit a three it didn’t need, or beat the Hogs down the floor when they weren’t set.

That adds up fast.

The Razorbacks also struggled to get quality looks late in possessions, forcing shots when the clock ran down. Against a team shooting as well as Auburn was, empty trips felt extra costly.

It wasn’t a lack of scoring talent. It was a lack of control.

Calipari keeps it simple after loss

Calipari didn’t overthink this one.

“This wasn’t us,” he said. “This stuff happens. We’re a top-20 team who got spanked today.”

That’s about as plain as it gets.

There was no talk of moral victories or long speeches about growth. Just an acknowledgment that Arkansas ran into a team that played harder, longer and smarter.

Calipari pointed straight at effort and rebounding, two things that usually don’t lie. When a coach starts talking about loose balls, it’s because the film is going to be uncomfortable.

Still, he wasn’t panicking.

Losses like this tend to clarify things. They expose what works and what doesn’t, especially for a roster still figuring out how to win on the road in this league.

The SEC doesn’t give out style points, and it definitely doesn’t forgive lapses in toughness.

Saturday was a reminder of that.

Arkansas turns focus back home

Arkansas returns to Bud Walton Arena next, where the Hogs will look a lot more like themselves.

Road losses happen. Ugly ones happen, too. The key is what comes after.

The Razorbacks are still early in SEC play, still learning how to handle pressure, and still talented enough to respond the right way. But nights like this shrink the margin for error.

Auburn got its first league win. Arkansas got a lesson.

Neither will forget it anytime soon.

Key takeaways

• Arkansas was outworked on the glass, and that rebounding gap shaped the entire game.
• Auburn’s shooting efficiency punished every defensive mistake the Razorbacks made.
• Calipari didn’t sugarcoat the loss, making it clear effort and urgency must improve fast.