Darius Acuff Jr. led the Arkansas Razorbacks to an 85-81 win over LSU on Saturday at Bud Walton Arena, scoring a career-high 31 points. Acuff’s performance included 24 points in the second half, where he shot 10-of-11 from the field and made all three of his three-point attempts. He also contributed six assists.
With Arkansas trailing 59-56 with just under ten minutes left, Acuff scored 12 of the team’s next 15 points, giving the Razorbacks a lead they maintained for the rest of the game. His run began with a three-pointer that tied the score at 59. After an LSU basket, Acuff assisted Karter Knox on another three-pointer to regain the lead for Arkansas. On defense, Acuff blocked two shots during one LSU possession before driving coast-to-coast for a layup.
Later in the game, Nick Pringle extended Arkansas’ advantage to seven points following an assist from Acuff. Although LSU narrowed the gap to two points with less than two minutes remaining, Acuff found Trevon Brazile for a key three-pointer with under a minute left. This play helped secure the victory despite some missed free throws by Acuff in the final seconds.
Acuff’s 31-point effort is only the eighth time an Arkansas freshman has scored at least 30 points in a game and marks both his personal best and the highest single-game total by any player during Coach John Calipari’s tenure at Arkansas.
Freshman Meleek Thomas added 14 points and three assists for Arkansas, while Billy Richmond III contributed 11 points. Brazile finished with seven rebounds and three steals along with seven points.
LSU kept pace largely due to their free throw shooting, making 22 out of 25 attempts compared to Arkansas’ seven out of eighteen. All five LSU starters reached double figures in scoring; Dedan Thomas Jr. led them with 18 points and Pablo Tamba recorded a double-double.
The game was rescheduled from its original evening start time to mid-afternoon because of winter weather conditions in Fayetteville.
Arkansas will next travel to face Oklahoma on Tuesday in Norman, with tipoff set for 6 p.m., broadcast on ESPN.
Coach Calipari now has accumulated 892 career wins as an NCAA Division I head coach and is eight victories away from reaching his milestone of 900 wins.
