Arkansas beats Auburn to advance in SEC Tournament

If you had told me before the game that Arkansas would commit 19 turnovers to Auburn’s 10, I would have told you that they’d easily get beat by double-digits. They were able to hang on, but it is pretty concerning when you have a turnover by every single player that stepped foot on the floor.

What saved the Hogs on Thursday night was that Auburn couldn’t convert those turnovers into points, despite being gifted nine more opportunities. Auburn barely won the points of turnover battle 19-15 despite the one-sided 19-10 turnover margin.

Arkansas’ late-game execution down the stretch has been a major downfall, and it almost cost them again tonight. After getting a 54-39 lead with 14:04 left, they allowed an easy layup and then proceeded to have back-to-back carless turnovers that led to two more easy layups. The momentum shifted and Auburn was able to claw their way back into the game.

As I mentioned earlier, we’d seen this story play out countless times this season and knew it probably wasn’t going to end well. Luckily, the Razorbacks have Nick Smith Jr. now and he was able to knock down a clutch jumper late. But Arkansas can’t keep having careless, self-inflicted turnovers at critical junctures in games. Allowing a 15-point lead to evaporate in the second half is usually a death sentence for teams in March. The Hogs need to take better care of the ball, period.