02/11 at 11:36 PM

Before Wednesday, Brendon Knox hadn’t exactly seized the opportunities bestowed upon him since he transferred to the height-challenged Tigers.

The 6-foot-9 athletic junior bumbled and stumbled in the sparse action he saw, as coach Jeff Lebo simply couldn’t afford to leave Korvotney Barber or Johnnie Lett off the court.

Lett, though, has been gone and will be out for the unforeseen future with a badly sprained ankle, so Knox has had no choice but to be ready for regular action.

Twenty-four games in, it finally clicked.

Knox and the rest of the Tigers’ bench played a pivotal role during the Tigers’ second half run, as Auburn overcame an eight-point halftime deficit to down a reeling Arkansas squad, 75-62, before 4,347 fans at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum.

The win put the Tigers at 4-5 in the SEC — good for a tie for third in the Western Division with Ole Miss — and was Auburn’s second in a row — its first back-to-back conference victories in more than a year.

“It was real big and Brendon Knox played good. Real good,” Lucas Hargrove said emphatically as he sat down at the postgame press conference.

“Quote that.”

With the Tigers trailing by 9, Knox, Hargrove and Frankie Sullivan entered with 15:38 to play and immediately energized what had been a lackluster Auburn attack.

Sullivan knocked down a 3 before Knox followed with back-to-back field goals, the first on a thunderous putback dunk, which injected a marginal amount of energy into the smallest Beard-Eaves crowd for an SEC game since March 2006.

The trio’s surge helped give Auburn its first tie and lead of the game before the starters sealed it minutes later with a 16-2 game-ending run.

“I really felt the biggest difference was our bench and I haven’t said that in a long time,” Lebo said. “Lucas, Brendon Knox and Frankie were the difference makers.”

Hargrove and Tay Waller each scored 14 points, while Sullivan and Knox chipped in 6 apiece. Knox did more than just score, though, as he grabbed four rebounds and picked up two big blocks during Auburn’s dominant second half.

“I liked the way we did it tonight because it wasn’t the so-called stars that did it,” Lebo said. “You’ve got to have depth to succeed.”

Arkansas’ biggest star unraveled under the spotlight of his first homecoming.

Montgomery native Courtney Fortson, a freshman, who picked up an intentional foul 19 seconds in the game after shoving Rasheem Barrett, fouled out with 4:23 to play and received a technical foul on his way to the bench for chirping at the referees.

The moment epitomized the Hogs’ struggles, as they shot just 27 percent from the field in the second half and lost their second, second-half double-digit lead in as many games.

“We’re fighting on a six-inch playing field between our ears,” Arkansas coach John Pelphrey said.

That might have been the battle Knox was waging before Wednesday’s emergence.

Knox has shown improvement in practice throughout the season, Lebo said, but it hadn’t translated into in-game productivity.

Lett’s injury and his subsequent poor showings in the two games without him prior to Wednesday served as a wakeup call, Knox said.

“Since Johnnie got hurt, I realized I had to step my game up,” Knox said. “The first two games were kind of rough, but then I realized they need me and I needed to be ready to go.”

Now he just has to run with Wednesday’s success and follow through in the Tigers’ final seven pivotal conference games.

“It is huge for Knox,” Lebo said. “He has a great opportunity with Johnnie out to play minutes for us. This is vital for his development.”

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The star: Lucas Hargrove had 14 points and eight rebounds to lead a rejuvenated Auburn bench.
The co-star: His shot wasn’t totally there, but Tay Waller made up for it with strong defense and quickness on fast breaks to add 14 points of his own.
Arkansas’ best: Rotnei Clarke and Stefan Walsh each had 14 points to lead the Hogs.
It was over when…: Arkansas went bone cold from the field with less than six minutes to play and Auburn capitalized with a game-ending 16-2 run.
Not much Tez again: After missing the first start of his career Saturday, Quantez Robertson was back in the starting lineup, but was a non-factor once again. He played just 11 minutes Wednesday, with only five coming in the second half.