RECAP: Poor Start Dooms Hogs In Auburn

Auburn jumped on the Hogs early and led nearly wire-to-wire in a 88-77 win. Auburn stays undefeated in conference play and the Hogs are 1-2 heading back to Bud Walton Arena. The Tigers were able to get a big early lead with three point shooting and forcing turnovers. In the first half Auburn was 7/13 from three and had 16 points off turnovers. The Hogs in that half were 1/9 from three and put up a goose egg in the points off turnovers column.

It’s looking more and more like the Hogs are going to live and die with performances from Daryl Macon this year, and it was a night to forget for him, just 3/11 from the field and 0/5 from deep.

In the second half, a comeback effort was led by Jaylen Barford. After being down 47-30 at the half, Arkansas was able to cut the deficit down to seven points. In the second half he got 19 of his 21 points while going 7/11 from the field. Barford had a chance at a three to cut it to a four point game with 3:27 to go but he missed and Bryce Brown came down and hit a three to kill any comeback attempt.

Auburn had five players hit double figures and six different Tigers hit a three. They finished shooting 55% from deep and the Hogs were just 21%. Had the Hogs been better shooting things could have gotten much more interesting. More importantly, its the second straight game where the Hogs only forced single digit turnovers. The Hogs are going to have to find ways to be better in the half court or get back to forcing turnovers. At 1-2 in the SEC the Hogs have home games against LSU and Missouri coming up. Some Bud Walton magic could be just what was needed for this team after another rough start to SEC play.