AUBURN | In his first start of the season, Malik Dunbar gave Auburn exactly what it needed.

The senior, who has served as a spark off the bench for the first 25 games, scored all eight of his points in the first 4:22 of the game, grabbed five rebounds, dished out three assists and had two steals and just two turnovers in 22 minutes. More importantly, he helped the Tigers to an early 21-1 lead in a 79-56 win over Arkansas.

“He handled it well,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. “Offensively, better than he was defensively early in that game. I’m glad he got his name called and got a chance to get in that starting lineup.

“Obviously, Samir (Doughty) is coming back from a foot injury, and I thought Samir’s attitude was really good. He was excited for Malik to be able to start and that’s what developing a good chemistry is all about.”

Doughty had averaged just 2.3 points in the previous three games while Dunbar was coming off a 13 point, five rebound performance at Vanderbilt.

“It was good,” said Dunbar of his first start of the season and fourth of his two-year career at Auburn. “I just tried to worry about defense. I ain’t tried to worry about offense as much. I just tried to be in the right spots so the offense could come to me.”

Pearl faces a key decision with Auburn’s game at No. 4 Kentucky coming up Saturday. Will he stick with Dunbar at the 3 position or go back to Doughty, who played 21 minutes against the Razorbacks with six points, four rebounds, two assists, two steals and five turnovers.

“I don’t like to mess around with the starting lineup too much,” Pearl said. “I thought he handled it well. We’ll watch the film and break it down a little bit and make sure he’s a little more alert defensively to start. But I thought he did very well and I thought the team responded to that.

"And Samir was aggressive coming off the bench, which I like. He’s just got to be much more careful. Got to take care of the basketball. He had five turnovers.”

Tip-off at Rupp Arena is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. CT on CBS.