NASHVILLE — Tournament Most Valuable Player Darius Acuff Jr. scored 30 points and dished out 11 assists, leading 17th-ranked Arkansas to an 86-75 win over No. 22 Vanderbilt in the Southeastern Conference tournament final on Sunday.
The third-seeded Razorbacks hit 62.5% of their 3-pointers (15 of 24) with five players making shots from beyond the arc.
Trevon Brazile (16 points) was 4 of 5 on 3s, two of those coming on back-to-back possessions just after fourth-seeded Vanderbilt took a two-point lead with 3:41 remaining, and added nine rebounds, two blocks and two steals.
Brazile also delivered a fastbreak dunk at the end of a 14-0 run that iced the game.
Billy Richmond III chipped in 18 points for Arkansas (26-8).
Duke Miles (19 points, nine assists, four steals) led the Commodores (26-8), who lost both their meetings with Arkansas this season by double digits.
The Commodores’ Tyler Nickel broke out of a shooting slump, hitting 5 of 7 3-point attempts and scoring 19 points.
Tyler Tanner had 15 points, but was 3 of 15 from the field and had just one assist.
Tanner hit two free throws with 6:59 left as the Commodores went into the bonus.
Nickel snapped a field-goal drought that lasted nearly eight minutes with a corner 3, tying the game at 66 with 6:40 remaining.
But Arkansas sandwiched a Tanner layup with second-chance 3s by Acuff and D.J. Wagner on its next two trips.
Miles put Vandy ahead at the 3:41 mark but Brazile buried 3s with 3:13 and 2:18 remaining.
Jalen Washington got a putback of a Miles miss, giving Vanderbilt its biggest lead of the day to that point at 55-49.
The Commodores then missed their next seven shots from the field as Arkansas went on an 11-0 run that spanned 3:03.
Arkansas led 41-39 at the end of a first half that ended at a dizzying pace.
The Razorbacks led by seven but Miles hit three layups in a span of 1:06, the last one putting Vanderbilt up two for the first time since early in the first half.
Acuff hit a pair of 3s in the final 49 seconds to help Arkansas keep the lead.
Richmond III led all scorers with 14 first-half points.
Miles and Tanner both made the all-tournament team.
–Chris Lee, Field Level Media
