FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas dominated, wavered and recovered to keep Auburn winless in Southeastern Conference women's basketball Thursday night at Walton Arena.
Their 16-point halftime lead dwindled to two before the Razorbacks prevailed 52-47, improving to 12-8 overall and 2-6 in the SEC going into Sunday's league game at Alabama.
Junior guard Melissa Wolff, Arkansas' second-leading scorer with 12 behind teammate Kelsey Brooks' game-leading 17, hit a jumper at 6:15 after Katie Frerkring's layup cut the Arkansas lead to 41-39.
"I think the turning point was Melissa hitting that little floater shot," Brooks said. "Because all we needed to do then was pick it up on defense."
And stave off the late-game blues that plagued Arkansas in close SEC losses to Texas A&M and Vanderbilt and in several other close games.
"It gets to you," Brooks said of games slipping away. "Other games we felt bad for ourselves. The last games in league play when we got to the eight-minute mark we let go. This time we kept throwing punches and stayed together both halves and came up with the win."
First-year Arkansas coach Jimmy Dykes said he provided several late-stage harsh reminders of games lost.
"With about four minutes to go I had to get after them pretty hard in that huddle," Dykes said. "I didn't like their body language and we have been there too many times when we went the other direction. But they responded and I am very happy for us to win."
Auburn (9-12, 0-8) went 18 of 46 from the field and committed 20 turnovers -- most, it seeme to coach Terri Williams-Flournoy, when the Tigers came close to catching Arkansas.
"Every time we got close we turned the ball over," Williams-Flournoy said. "We got it to two and we turned it over. We didn't play well in the first half. We didn't score and it's very hard to win a basketball game if you don't score no matter how many stops you get. Arkansas is a good offensive team and you aren't going to get a stop every time."
Arkansas' defense pleased Dykes, he said, even as forward Tra'Cree Tanner shot five for five for Auburn's leading 12 points.
Sports on 01/31/2015