BY NOAH GRIFFITH | FOR THE OBSERVER
PHOTO BY ZACH BLAND | AUBURN TIGERS
AUBURN – The start of SEC play didn’t slow down Auburn University men’s basketball one bit.
Arkansas fans stormed the court after beating No. 1 Auburn the last time the Tigers visited Bud Walton Arena. This time, Auburn (12-2) came out on top, 83-51, to extend its winning streak to seven games. Auburn has won each of those seven games by 15 points or more, and the 32-point win was the sixth win in that stretch by 20 or more. Not to mention, it was the biggest deficit the Hogs had ever lost by inside Bud Walton Arena, which dates back to 1993.
“That history does matter,” said head coach Bruce Pearl. “Doing it at a place like this, or if you could do it at (Kentucky) or if you could do it at Tennessee, it does mean more because those are some of the toughest places in the SEC to play.”
Both offenses got off to a slow start before Chad Baker-Mazara scored seven points in the final four minutes of the first half to give Auburn a 37-30 lead going to halftime.
The Tigers took over from there. Auburn outscored Arkansas, 46-21, in the second half as Auburn rode Baker-Mazara’s second straight 16-point effort off the bench to the win. Johni Broome (14), Jaylin Williams (11) and Tre Donaldson (11) all joined Baker-Mazara in double figures in scoring as it shot 48.6% as a team while holding Arkansas to 31%.
With a dominant win over Arkansas (9-5), Auburn continues to build an impressive resume that only consist of two losses by a combined six points. It looks to continue that on Tuesday, as it returns home to face Texas A&M.
