Bruce Pearl admittedly isn’t a fan of switching up his starting five. He likes to keep tings consistent, noting that those roles have been earned over an extended period of time.
Yet with Samir Doughty coming off a minor foot injury that limited him against Vanderbilt on Saturday, Pearl reconfigured things against Arkansas on Wednesday night — and, boy, did it pay off for Auburn in its 79-56 drubbing of the Razorbacks at Auburn Arena.
Doughty watched from the bench to open the game — the first time all season he has not been in the starting lineup — and had a front-row seat for an overdue offensive onslaught from the Tigers, who’d averaged 59.5 points in two games last week and hadn’t scored more than 76 points in a game since the Alabama game Feb. 2. With Malik Dunbar inserted into the lineup, making his first start of the season, Auburn (18-8, 7-6 SEC) got off to arguably its best start of the year.
The Tigers jumped out to a 22-1 lead before the Razorbacks even made their first field goal, which didn’t come until 7-plus minutes into the game after a 0-for-8 start from the floor.
During that opening stretch, Auburn connected on 6-of-8 3-point attempts — with its first four makes of the game coming from beyond the arc, starting with one from Anfernee McLemore. That 6-of-8 start included a pair from Dunbar, who scored eight of the Tigers’ first 17 points, the other two coming on a transition alley-oop from Jared Harper. Dunbar finished the game with eight points, five rebounds, three assists and a pair of steals.
“It started off (Anfernee) McLemore made a 3-point shot and it kind of snowballed,” Arkansas coach Mike Anderson said. “... Our defense didn’t do a good job of getting out there and finding their shooters. We know they can go on a run, and they they can really go off, and they did tonight.”
It was Doughty, coming off the bench to play 21 minutes, who drilled the sixth 3-pointer in the early goings that pushed that lead to 22-1 with 13:28 to go in the first half. Auburn’s lead grew to 30 points in the first half when Doughty made a layup, got fouled and finished the three-point play at the line with 4:54 to play.
"I didn’t believe it,” Dunbar said of the lopsided early score.
All of that was before the Razorbacks could hit double digits on the scoreboard, with the Tigers’ lead sitting at 39-9.
Arkansas finally got into double digits on a tip-in by Gabe Osabuohien with 4:23 to go in the half, and the Razorbacks closed to within 22 before the Tigers took a 25-point lead into the break — one that left little doubt about the evening’s outcome, especially on a night that Arkansas shot just 32.8 percent overall, including 15.4 percent (4-of-26) from beyond the arc.
“This is five or six — six or seven or so,” Pearl said. “I mean, obviously, we’re, we’ve done well since Mississ — we’re 2-4 coming off of that first six games and four road games, and the loss to Mississippi State where we gave up a gazillion bajillion. From that point forward, I think we’ve really locked in defensively — great effort and energy, real attention to detail, flying around — it’s been the key to our playing better basketball right now.”
The Razorbacks’ night was aptly summed up with 4:01 to play and Auburn holding a 25-point lead, when talented Arkansas center Daniel Gafford airballed a wide-open dunk, hurling the ball into the student section after missing the rim altogether.
“The epitome -- he had a wide-open dunk and he missed the dunk," Anderson said. “That’s the kind of night it was.”
Auburn, meanwhile, shot 48.1 overall and made 17-of-33 (51.5 percent) 3-pointers. Auburn’s 17 3-pointers were its most since hitting 18 in the season opener against South Alabama, as the Tigers set a new SEC season high for makes from beyond the arc, which also tied the program’s most in SEC play under Pearl.
Auburn had four players finish in double figures, led by Bryce Brown’s 19. McLemore finished with 13 points, six rebounds and a pair of blocks, while Chuma Okeke had 11 points, four rebounds, five assists and three blocks, and Harper added 10 points and four assists.
“Obviously, Auburn, we know what they’re capable of doing,” Anderson said. “and obviously they had their way tonight.”
Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.