By Nate Allen
FAYETTEVILLE - Willed by a vocally unceasing, Hog-calling and some of it postgame court swarming 20,327 Walton Arena record crowd, the unranked Arkansas Razorbacks upended the nationally No. 1/SEC leading Auburn Tigers, 80-76 Tuesday night in overtime.
JD Notae’s game-high 28 points, including in overtime a key three and the game-clinching free throw, led Arkansas to defeating the first nationally No. 1 team come to Walton since its 1993-94 debut.
Double-doubling Razorbacks Au’Diese Toney, 14 points and 10 rebounds, and Jaylin Williams, 13 points and 11 rebounds, and off the bench guard Davonte “Devo” Davis, 10 points and five steals, did the bidding of a crowd that wouldn’t let them lose.
“I tell you who we should really thank is everybody that came into this building,” Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman said on postgame radio. “Because this building was on fire for sure! You can go to basketball games all over the country. You can go for the next 50 years. There’s not going to be a crowd that’s better than that.”
From pregame, that for some University of Arkansas students started Monday camping out in tents in front of Walton to rallying the Razorbacks from down 64-59 with 2:40 left in regulation to swarming the court 12 seconds after Notae’s overtime free throw made it the 4-point lead that Auburn couldn’t catch, the crowd played its part for Walton’s first upset of an Arkansas No. 1 opponent.
Arkansas’ lone previous triumph over a No. 1 team was Eddie Sutton’s 1984 Razorbacks upsetting Michael Jordan led North Carolina in Pine Bluff.
“You could dream about something like that, man,” Notae said. “Just having everybody rush the court and beating the No. 1 team and it was just fun. All these tremendous fans showed their support and we just fed off it.”
Auburn Coach Bruce Pearl noted always tough Walton Arena becomes all the tougher arriving ranked No. 1.
““We have a price on our head,” Pearl said. “It is very difficult on the road. Congratulations to Arkansas. Arkansas played well and hard.”
From dancing on the center court Hog pregame to the finish, Auburn’s Tigers, now 22-2 overall, 10-1 in the SEC, did not quietly surrender their 19-game winning streak.
The Razorbacks won their ninth consecutively and advance to 19-5 overall/8-3 in the SEC heading into Saturday’s 11 a.m SEC Network televised SEC game at Alabama.
Auburn outrebounded Arkansas, 60-42. Tigers 7-1 center Walker Kessler astounding with 19 rebounds and seven shot-blocks to go with 16 points. Auburn National Player of the Year candidate 6-10 forward Jabari Smith scored a team-leading 20 points with nine rebounds and point guard Wendell Green scored 19 points.
Auburn withstood Arkansas’ stiff first-half punch, a 27-15 lead at 4:13, trail only 28-25 at intermission.
The Tigers capitalized on Arkansas’ Jaylin Williams sitting out the first half’s final 7:06 with two fouls.
Auburn outrebounded Arkansas, 31-15 for the first half but off first-half turnovers was outscored 15-4.
Foul trouble plagued both teams. but only Auburn’s Kessler and K.D. Johnson, the Auburn guard neutralized to a 1 for 7 shooting night, fouled out, both fouled out in overtime.
Though still outrebounded, the Razorbacks rebounded far better the game’s remainder than the first half.
Auburn wasn’t quite as often turnovers victimized with Arkansas’ second half/overtime points off turnovers advantage to 9-6.
It still sufficed turning back the Tigers.
“Arkansas did a good job turning us over and got points off of those turnovers,” Pearl said. “They disrupted us a little bit and we turned the basketball over too much.”
And fouled too much.
Though controlling the boards and blocking nine shots, the Tigers couldn’t stop fouling the charge-taking, hard-driving Hogs.
Arkansas, with Notae shooting 11 of 14 free throws for the game and the Razorbacks as a team 11 of 14 free throws in an overtime with Notae’s trey the lone Arkansas OT field goal, shot 26 of 32 free throws for the game to Auburn’s 8 of 17.
The free throws made Musselman a prophet.
“He told us today that free throws are going to be a big part of this win,” Notae said. “So there it is.”
The Razorbacks appeared reeling down 64-59 with 2:40 in regulation. Initially Toney turned it around. He hit two free throws at 2:28, and tied up a held ball after Smith missed a jumper before Stanley Umude’s free throw cut it to 64-62 at 1:51.
Notae’s steal off point guard Green led to a foul and two free throws tying it 64-64 at :54.
Green scored for a 66-64 but with six seconds left missed a long three after Notae fed Williams for a 66-66 tying basket at :23 of regulation.
Allen Flanigan’s follow layup provided the first OT score that Notae’s trey exceeded 69-68 at 3:06.
Dylan Cardwell’s layup gave Auburn its last lead, 70-69 at 2:39.i
Williams’ two free throws put Arkansas up, 71-10 at 1:52 and for good. Davis’ fifth steal set up Notae to be fouled for a pair of free throws and a 73-70 lead at 1:20.
Auburn’s Smith hit threes at :29 and :19 to pulling the Tigers to within three and then two after Arkansas guard Chris Lykes’ free throws.
Toney and Notae hit free throws each putting it out of reach.
“Just so proud of our team because Auburn is a really, really good basketball team,” Musselman said. “I give our players a lot of credit. They truly believed tonight that they were going to win the game.”
Seems their fans did, too.