Another night of Auburn basketball can only mean one thing: Keyshawn Hall is going to light up the scoreboard.
The Auburn Tigers rode Hall’s 32-point performance to their first SEC win of the season on Saturday night over No. 15 Arkansas, 95-73 in Neville Arena.
“He’s been doing this all year. He doesn’t get recognized or talked about enough,” said Auburn head coach Steven Pearl after the game. “His offense has been his offense all year.”
Hall notched 18 first-half points and finished his night 11-of-14 from the floor, knocking down four triples with a perfect 4-for-4 mark from the charity stripe. He became the first player since Wesley Person in 1994 to record consecutive games of 30-plus points, and has now scored 20 or more points nine times this season.
“I come out every night thinking it’s going to be a special night,” Hall said.
Hitting the transfer portal this offseason as the Big 12’s leading scorer and an All-Big 12 Second Team Selection from UCF, Hall admitted the Tigers’ first conference win carried a little extra meaning.
“I took this game kind of personally,” Hall said. “I came through the transfer portal, obviously came here, and Arkansas was one of my top four schools. They didn’t recruit me as hard as other guys they wanted to. So, treated this game personally. They thought other guys were more worthy than me. So every time I play them, it’s going to be personal.”
“He’s got a lot of ways to score,” Hall of Fame coach John Calipari said of Hall after his squad’s 22-point loss. “He’s making threes. He goes at the basket. He isolates pretty good. He’s good. He’s a good player.”
Hall fueled a defensive effort that held Arkansas 17.5 points below its season average, which was 16th nationally coming into the game. Auburn limited the Razorbacks – third nationally in fastbreak points – to just 13 transition points while forcing 11 turnovers for 13 points on the other end.
“I’m more pleased with his defense,” Pearl said. “I thought he had a lot of really good collisions at the rim where we made them miss tough contested twos. And that’s just what he wants to do. He wanted to come here to become a better defender. And I think he’s starting to do that.”
“The whole team came locked in,” Hall said.
With his 12th point of the night, the Cleveland, Ohio, native reached the 1,500-point mark for his collegiate career.
When asked where he feels most comfortable on the floor, Hall didn’t hesitate.
“With the ball in my hands,” he said. TG
