No. 16 Arkansas used a fourth-quarter surge to avoid a big road upset Thursday night.
Makayla Daniels scored nine of her 11 points in the fourth quarter to help the Razorbacks hold Auburn without a field goal over the last four-plus minutes and claim a 74-69 victory over Auburn.
Amber Ramirez made a three-pointer in transition with 4:16 left in the fourth quarter to give Arkansas (18-7, 8-6 SEC) a 66-65 lead it would not relinquish. The Razorbacks trailed most of the second half and by as many as 10, but held Auburn to just 1-of-9 shooting in the final 4:24.
Daniels added a three-pointer to push the lead to four as the Razorbacks have now won seven of their last eight games. Auburn, which lost its 15th in a row, got no closer than two after that.
Arkansas Coach Mike Neighbors said the team’s overall experience was the difference in being able to overcome a big night from 6-3 Unique Thompson, who notched the 58th double-double of her career.
“That’s the advantage of having a bunch of seniors,” Neighbors said. “I don’t count Makayla as a sophomore. She’s played as many minutes as most juniors and seniors in the country. I was really proud of Erynn [Barnum] coming in there defensively. I thought she made a huge impact in that fourth quarter making Thompson catch it just a little bit further out.”
Daniels being in foul trouble early in the game turned out to be a blessing late, Neighbors said.
“She didn’t play as many minutes, and she came in and hit those two big threes behind the screen,” Neighbors said. “And then got a stop. We all know that we’re really sensitive to how we are offensively. And once we made a few shots I really thought our defensive got better, too.
“[Daniels] played with a lot of emotion, which we needed tonight. We were flat. It was a tough environment on senior night. … I thought her intensity was really big in that fourth quarter.”
Destiny Slocum and Chelsea Dungee led Arkansas with 16 points each, while Ramirez added 15 on five three-pointers. Daniels added 11 and Barnum chipped in 8 points and a team-high 6 rebounds in 29 minutes off the bench.
Dungee committed an uncharacteristic seven turnovers, but the redshirt senior now has 2,078 career points with 1,834 coming as a Razorback.
Arkansas struggled shooting much of the night but was 9-of-15 shooting, including 5-of-9 three-pointers in the fourth quarter. The Razorbacks finished 10 of 23 (44%) from three-point range compared to 4 of 15 for Auburn.
Thompson, Auburn’s lone senior, put together a huge effort trying to lead the Tigers to their first SEC win of the season. She finished with 22 points and 18 rebounds — both games highs.
The victory was especially big as Arkansas tries to improve possible NCAA Tournament seeding with a next reveal scheduled for Sunday. The Razorbacks were named as a team in the discussion for a top 16 seed two weeks ago during the first reveal.
“It woulda given the committee reason to take us out of the conversation,” Neighbors said if the Razorbacks lost. “I think we’ve got ourselves in the conversation for one of the top 16 seeds the way we’ve been playing down the stretch, the body of work, the number of top 50 and 100 opponents that we’ve played.”
Honesty Scott-Grayson chipped in 18 points for the Tigers (5-17, 0-14), while Sania Wells added 12.
The Tigers outrebounded Arkansas 47-29 but managed only 11 second-chance points.
Ramirez drained a three-pointer to get Arkansas within 54-52 early in the fourth quarter, but Auburn answered with six consecutive from Thompson and Scott-Grayson.
Wells’ three-pointer capped a 7-0 Auburn run for a 44-34 advantage with 5:21 left in the third quarter after Arkansas tied it with a three-point play by Slocum. The Tigers led 52-47 after three quarters.
Auburn used a 16-2 second-quarter run to lead 30-29 at halftime lead behind Thompson and Scott-Grayson. The Tigers made their last six field goals to end the second quarter.
The Razorbacks close the regular season at 5 p.m. Sunday by hosting Alabama