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.
“We’re not done yet,” Acuff said. “We’ve still got more to go.”
Billy Richmond III chipped in 18 points for Arkansas (26-8).
“You look at Billy, you look at how much Darius has grown,” Razorbacks coach John Calipari said. “Not only as a basketball player, as a leader. It’s incredible. That’s what we should be in the business for. You want to win, but it’s the name on the back I’m in the business for.”
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.
“I think that was the best thing for us,” Nickel said. “The SEC is so talented from top to bottom but the teams we had to face are perfect to get us ready for the postseason. Physical, hard-playing, strong front courts, to where we had to be super tough and aggressive. That intensity, and the way we needed to play to win and compete in those games, is exactly what we’re going to need going forward.”
Arkansas sandwiched a Tanner layup with second-chance 3s by Acuff and D.J. Wagner on its next two trips.
A Miles jumper brought Vandy to within 74-72 at the 3:41 mark but Brazile buried 3s with 3:13 and 2:18 remaining to extend the lead to eight points.
Five minutes into the second half, 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.
“Just my teammates believing in me,” Acuff said of his clutch late shooting. “I give credit to them. They trust me with the ball and I’ve just gotta go make the plays. Downhill was working all weekend and today and I just had to be smart with the ball. No late turnovers.”
Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington was effusive in his praise for Acuff, named first-team All-America, 2026 SEC Player of the Year, SEC Freshman of the Year and first-team All-SEC.
“His shiftiness and the speed is elite. … with him you need more than one guy to guard him,” Byington said. “There’s not a lot of great game plans, obviously this year, that people have been able to stop him.”
Richmond III led all scorers with 14 first-half points.
Miles and Tanner both made the all-tournament team.
–Chris Lee, Field Level Media
