Thanks to Patrick and the Seniors, Arkansas won game No. 20 and remains very much on the NCAA Tournament bubble heading into this week’s SEC Tournament in Atlanta.

Razorback sophomore guard Patrick Beverley scored a seasonhigh 27 points, including 6 of 6 treys, while senior teammates Darian Townes, Steven Hll, Sonny Weems, Gar y Er vin, Charles Thomas and Vincent Hunter all contributed in their farewell game at Walton Arena to defeat Auburn, 77-64 in Saturday’s SEC regular-season finale.

Arkansas closes the regular season books, 20-10 and with a 9-7 second place in the SEC West, is assured a Thursday first-round bye into Friday’s SEC Tournament quarterfinal against Thursday’s winner between Vanderbilt, third in the SEC East, and these same Auburn Tigers, 14-15 and 4-12 in the West.

In pool hall jargon, fast break, 3-ball from the side pocket was Arkansas’ first-half M. O. The Hogs nailed 8 of 14 first-half treys, with Beverley 4 of 4, mostly spotting up in the corners on fast breaks while building a 45-26 halftime lead.

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To their credit, Jeff Lebo’s Tigers, who easily could have just been ready to end this injuryplagued season, battled hard in the second half, swarming the Razorbacks to reduce the lead to 10 before 7-foot Hill, with 3 key shot blocks, and Beverley, with key baskets, turned back every Tiger run.

Auburn was paced by Frank Tolbert’s 17 points while Rasheem Barrett scored 13, and Quantez Robertson, 12. Beverley wasn’t the only Razorback with a season high.

Senior center Townes had a career high 14 rebounds and with 12 points, his first double-double of the campaign.

Thomas scored 10, his first double-figure scoring since Jan. 19, Hunter scored 7 with 4 rebounds, Weems scored 7 with 5 boards and point guard Ervin dealt 7 assists, several to Beverley on the side.

“ Everyone contributed tonight, ” Arkansas coach John Pelphrey said. “ All our seniors contributed and Patrick was unbelievable. ”

Sophomore point guard Stefan Welsh added 4 assists and 8 points in his “ best game of the year. ”

“ That’s been happening all year, me running to the right corner, ” Beverley. “ Gary Ervin and Stefan Welsh did a great job making our team better today. ”

Er vin advised Beverley he could corner the market.

“ I told Beverley, ” Ervin said. “ I’m going to get you the ball. He was hot and every shot he took was falling. ”

Beverley now has scored 17, 19 and 27 points his last three games after a shooting slump rendered him to career lows 5, 5 and 4 points in three of the preceding five games before he scored 17 in a March 1 victory over Vanderbilt.

“ I think it was a confidence issue, ” Beverley said. “ I think the coaching staff had more confidence in me than I did. My mom told me you get out what you put in. So I started rededicating myself and putting time in the gym and it’s been paying off. ”

It was big for him paying off on the day of the six seniors’ swan song.

“ You take for granted all the time you have with them, ” Beverley said. “ So this was a very emotional game for me. ”

Though much shorter than Arkansas, Aubur n actually outrebounded Arkansas when the Razorbacks opened the SEC season winning, 76-70, back on Jan. 10 at Auburn.

Saturday Arkansas outboarded the Tigers, 39-26 with Townes the leading erase of the boards.

“ I just had to move my feet, ” Townes said, “ and get in position quicker than they did. They are very quick and physical. ”

Other than a 7-6 advantage overcoming Arkansas’ 5-0 start, Auburn never led in the first half that the Razorbacks comfortably led, 45-26 at intermission.

Townes, surpassing his season’s rebounding best with 11 just in the first half, put Arkansas ahead to stay with a putback for an 8-7 lead at 15: 25.

Sonny Weems’ 3-ball from the corner pocket made it 11-7.

The Hogs got the lead to seven on Charles Thomas ’ old-fashioned 3-point play at 12: 21 and had their first double lead, 26-16 on Patrick Beverley’s trey at 10: 00.

Beverley got it to 20, 43-23 on two free throws at 2: 32.

Townes peaked the first half lead at 22 at 1: 40 before Rasheem Barrett’s Auburn trey closed the first-half scoring.

Beverley was on first-half fire hitting 4 of 4 treys as the Hogs, 8 for 14, had 32 firsthalf points on 3-pointers alone and also controlled the first-half boards, 20-13.

Auburn played so hard in the second half, but Beverley answered with a 3 when the Tigers closed to 10 and also pulled the crowd out of a temporary lull with a big steal and dunk.

Hill had a magnificent stretch, especially with an acrobatic save of one his shot-blocks headed out of bounds.

“ Beverley stunned us a little bit that first half, ” Auburn coach Jeff Lebo said. “ Second half we bothered them but then Hill made a couple of terrific shot blocks that erased opportunities. ”

Pelphrey, who was so angry over a first-half call that he broke plexiglass kicking a table, was all smiles afterwards.

“ I’ve kicked it harder in practice, ” Pelphrey said. “ It was a lucky punch. ”

What about Arkansas ’ NCAA Tournament chances ?

“ I don’t have a crystal ball, ” Pelphrey said. “ I don’t know. Let’s let our play do the talking because it’s someone else’s decision. ”

The victory made Pelphrey the first Razorbacks basketball coach to record 20 victories in his first season as coach.