AUBURN | For a coach or his players, it can be hard to find positives from a blown 19-point lead in a conference road loss at Arkansas.

But for Auburn, a young team that is going through what Bruce Pearl calls a developmental season, there was at least one key moment to build on.

“Kind of let one get away,” Pearl said. “Great first 16 minutes of basketball on the road. Played really well at both ends. Last three or four minutes of the first half we kind of took our foot off the gas and gave Arkansas some confidence, and they just kept that through the halftime. Our starters were very poor to start the second half -- effort, energy, 50-50 balls, points in the paint, points at the rim.

“Showed some heart and some character getting back in the game late. Made some plays and obviously didn't quit.”

The Tigers led by 12 at halftime before the Razorbacks started the second half on an 18-4 run to take the lead. Arkansas led by eight with 2:40 left before AU started chipping away, making 3 of 6 free throws and then back-to-back layups by Sharife Cooper to cut the lead to 74-73 with 1:03 to go.

A shot-clock violation turned it back over to Auburn, but Cooper missed a potential go-ahead layup with 5 seconds left, taking a shot to the face in the process. Arkansas added a free throw and then a long 3-point attempt by Allen Franklin at the buzzer missed the mark.

“Just desperation,” said Cooper of the last couple of minutes. “We wanted to come in here and get the win. Our back was against the wall, and we fought to the end. I'm proud of that. One play away, and we could've gone to overtime. But I can take that and be happy with it — that we didn't give up and we fought until the end.”

If there’s a lesson to take from this loss, it’s probably the lack of defensive intensity Auburn showed for the last four minutes of the first half and the first 17 of the second half. The Razorbacks made 8 of their last 10 field goals to end the first half and shot 52.9 percent from the floor in the second half.

Of Arkansas’ 30 made field goals, 21 came on layups or dunks.

“I think you can learn from winning as easily as you can learn from losing,” Pearl said. “But you can't learn because we stopped guarding and having that same kind of intensity and physicality and sense of urgency, because we talk about it all the time. We understand that, and so we'll learn, but obviously learn the hard way.”

Auburn, 8-7 overall and 2-5 in the SEC, plays at South Carolina Saturday at 11 a.m. CT on ESPN2.