Acuff, Thomas combine for 48 points to lockdown possible NCAA Tournament at-large bid
BATON ROUGE, La. — Arkansas needed to keep its foot on the gas on the road against LSU Tuesday night, and were able to do just that with a 91-62 victory on coach John Calipari’s 67th birthday. The Razorbacks and Tigers went into the night on different ends of the spectrum when it comes to season vibes.
Arkansas came in on the verge of locking up an NCAA Tournament bid. For LSU, coach Matt McMahon’s squad was looking to knock off a top-25 ranked team to secure an outside shot of an at-large bid. What he probably didn't see coming was the buzzsaw the Razorbacks would bring by making 64% of its second half field goal attempts, blocking 10 shots and forcing 10 turnovers. Outside of a couple of missed alley-oop dunks, everything was falling for the Razorbacks. Even the circus shots off the glass were looked easy in yet another road rout in SEC play. Arkansas asserted an edge defensively right out the gate, taking a 12-2 lead with 15:32 left in the first half and never looked back.Tigers’ starting point guard Deden “DJ” Thomas was out once again with a foot injury for the ninth time in 11 games. His absence continues to limit LSU’s The Razorbacks blitzed LSU straight out of the Pete Maravich Assembly Center as the combination of domination between Darius Acuff and Meleek Thomas combined for 48 points on the night. The freshman duo made 19-of-35 attempts from the floor, including a 2-of-8 mark from three. Acuff led all scorers with 28 points, which is his fifth straight game with 20+ points.As far as milestones go, Acuff is now only one point shy of 500 career points with the Razorbacks as a true freshman. His 499 total points scored this season ranks No. 3 all-time for any Razorback freshman,With eight guaranteed games left to play in the regular season, Acuff will have a chance to break Scotty Thurman's freshman record of 540 points from the 1992-1993 season. If he continues to score at his current pace of 20.79 points per game, he will likely finish among the top-10 on the Razorbacks single-season scoring list. One area Acuff excels in is his ability to distribute the basketball, and did that well once again against LSU as he finished the night with five, which gives him 150 on the season. If he closes the regular season along with the first game of the SEC Tournament in Nashville included, Acuff could finish with exactly 200 assists on the season which is easily the most by an Arkansas freshman in school history.Senior forward Trevon Brazile was able to do what he wanted repeatedly against LSU whether he was in the post or playing on the perimeter. He finished the night with 14 points, 12 rebounds, and five blocks on the night while also being labeled as the most effective player on the court all night with a +38 point differential while on the floor.Arkansas was able to do exactly what they needed to do to pull off another road victory. With a Valentine's Day date against Auburn inside Bud Walton Arena on Saturday evening, it gives the Razorbacks' an opportunity to continue shaping its NCAA Tournament resume as the regular season winds down.The Tigers under first-year coach Steven Pearl have underachieved a bit after making the Final Four last season. They still have enough experience to make noise, recently knocking off Florida on the road two weeks ago. Pearl's squad will be reeling a bit after squandering a major Quad-1 opportunity against Vanderbilt Tuesday night. The Tigers dropped to 5-6 in SEC play while Arkansas improved to an 8-3 mark with back-to-back victories over middle-of-the-pack league teams in Mississippi State and LSU. Arkansas' final seven regular season games will tell the tournament selection committee exactly which seed line to place them on. Treacherous road games against Alabama , Florida and Missouri could push Arkansas into 4-seed territory or keep them in the dangerous 6-8 seed line.Jacob Davis is a reporter for Arkansas Razorbacks on SI, with a decade of experience covering high school and transfer portal recruiting. He has previously worked at Rivals, Saturday Down South, SB Nation and hosted podcasts with Bleav Podcast Network where his show was a finalist for podcast of the year. Native of El Dorado, he currently resides in Central Arkansas with his wife and daughter.
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