FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — If it had happened to any other team in the league, Auburn coach Tony Barbee might have raised an eyebrow.
But after watching his team go without a field goal for nearly 12 minutes, then score 33 in the final 8 to make for a respectable 73-64 loss to Arkansas, Barbee couldn’t say he was all that surprised.

“Not with this team,” he said. “We see it all the time.”

Barbee saw his team go frigid from the field, then immediately turn red hot in the second half Tuesday night.

The Tigers (7-13, 0-6 SEC) sandwiched the halftime break with 11:44 without a field goal, a stretch in which they went 0-for-23 from the field.

They immediately followed that up with a 16-2 run over 4:05 to get back into the game.

“It’s kind of fool’s gold playing that way with this team,” Barbee said of the Tigers’ strong finish, “because we don’t have the depth, we don’t have the athleticism, we don’t have the length to sustain that for a 40-minute game. The teams, the personnel in this league are too good to play that way for 40 minutes, especially if you don’t have a more physically dominating team than the opponent.

“And we won’t in any game this year in this league.”

Auburn hung with Arkansas (13-6, 3-3) for the first half, with a Kenny Gabriel breakaway dunk bringing the Tigers within 33-30 and — after a Razorback free thrown — went into the break down 4.

Gabriel’s dunk would be the Tigers’ last basket until a Tony Neysmith runner in the lane with 8:36 in the game, a stretch in which Arkansas outscored them 22-1 and built a 55-31 lead.

The pinnacle of Auburn’s cold snap was a possession in which it got five looks near the rim, missing them all, then allowed Rotnei Clarke to nail a 3-pointer on the other end to put the Razorbacks up 21.

“That one possession we must have had 8, 9, 10 shots at the basket, we couldn’t get it to go in and they come down and bury a 3,” Barbee said. “Because we hung our heads and trotted back and those guys made some big shots off of our lack of offense.”

Neysmith’s runner stopped the bleeding, baskets by Earnest Ross and Adrian Forbes got a run going, and a 3-point play and 3-point bucket by Allen Payne got the Tigers within 10 with 4:31 to go.

Auburn was even able to cut the lead to 68-62 on a Forbes and-1 with 1:10 to go.

But it was too little, too late.

“You fight so hard, and to not come out on top, that’s the most frustrating thing,” said Payne, who finished with 13 points. “You give all you have, you guard, shots aren’t falling and you still keep fighting, end up coming back and still don’t win, I think that’s the toughest thing.

“I think I’d rather get blown out than lose a game giving everything I have and losing by 5 or 6 points.”

Clarke and Julysses Nobles led the Razorbacks with 16 points apiece, and Nobles hit eight crucial free throws down the stretch to ice the game.
Marshawn Powell scored 13 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for Arkansas, and Delvon Johnson added 10.

Ross led the Tigers with 15 points, and Forbes scored a career-high 11 in the loss.

“You’ve got to have heart and you’ve got to be determined,” Forbes said. “We’ve got guys on the team who are determined and willing to fight through it, even when stuff’s not going their way.”

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