How Razorbacks' Brazile, Acuff Ended Up Making Most Noise in Baton Rouge

Trevon Brazile protected the rim, Darius Acuff attacked the lane, and Arkansas owned the paint in Baton Rouge.

Arkansas Razorbacks forward Trevon Brazile (7) handles the ball as Mississippi State Bulldogs forward Achor Achor (99) defends during the first half at Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville, Miss. | Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

There are nights on the road in the SEC when the building shakes and rattles. It's why there's a home edge.

Then there are nights when the biggest comes from a student hitting a halfcourt shot during a timeout, according to a report by Anthony Kristensen at WholeHogSports

Tuesday in Baton Rouge was the second kind.

Arkansas walked into Pete Maravich Assembly Center and walked out with a 91-62 win over LSU, completing a regular-season sweep and tightening its grip on the SEC title race. The Razorbacks didn’t just win. They controlled tempo, the paint and the mood of the building.

With the victory, the Hogs improved to 18-6 overall and 8-3 in league play. LSU dropped to 14-10 and 2-9, drifting further down the standings. The boos that echoed late felt less like frustration with a single night and more like a season slipping away.

The Tigers shot 30.9% from the field and 3 of 21 from beyond the arc. Arkansas blocked 10 shots. It outscored LSU 64-34 in the paint. When the stat sheet looks like that, the rest of the story writes itself.

Arkansas Razorbacks guard Darius Acuff Jr. (5) is fouled by LSU Tigers guard Mazi Mosley (0) next to guard Jalen Reece (2) during the second half at Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, La. | Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images

Acuff Sets the Tone

Darius Acuff finished with 28 points on 13 of 22 shooting. He added five assists and two rebounds. He made just one three-pointer.

“Darius Acuff was really good,” Arkansas coach John Calipari said. “And when you look at what he did, he was 1 for 4 from the 3, which meant either a mid-level shot — which I like him to shoot because he can make them — or he shot layups.”

That’s a polite way of saying LSU couldn’t keep him out of the lane.

Acuff makes complicated plays look simple. He gets downhill. He rises over size. He finds teammates cutting into space. His 20.5 points and 6.3 assists per game aren’t an accident. They’re a pattern.

Just don't be expecting Calipari to let him coast. That's not his style.

“Holding [Acuff] and Meleek Thomas to high standards, it’s what I’ve done with my players in the past, especially the most talented,” Calipari said. “I’m always hardest on my best players. Because then it’s easy to coach everybody else.”

On a night when Arkansas needed to stay in the SEC title chase, Acuff delivered the kind of efficient scoring that travels.

LSU Tigers forward Mike Nwoko has his shot blocked by Arkansas Razorbacks forward Trevon Brazile. | Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images

Brazile Owns the Rim

If Acuff handled the offense, Trevon Brazile handled everything else.

Brazile finished with 14 points, 12 rebounds, five blocks, four steals and an assist. He shot 4 of 8 from the field and recorded his fifth double-double of the season. His plus-38 was the best mark on the team.

Disruptive might be the best way to describe his play. At times, he looked like his hair was on fire.

LSU went 13 of 34 on layups. Many of those misses came with Brazile nearby, arms extended and timing intact. Even when he didn’t block the shot, he changed it.

Earlier in the season, shot blocking wasn’t a strength.

Arkansas entered ranked No. 56 nationally in defensive efficiency. LSU brought a top-45 offense by KenPom metrics. On Tuesday, those numbers felt reversed.

Arkansas Razorbacks forward Nick Pringle dunks against LSU Tigers forward Marquel Sutton during the second half at Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, La. | Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images

Pringle’s Early Message and Small-Ball Reminder

The first possession told part of the story, even if it didn’t seem dramatic at the time.

Nick Pringle grabbed an offensive rebound and powered in a physical layup. On LSU’s next trip, Arkansas forced a shot-clock violation, the first of three in the opening half.

The Tigers' faithful didn't waste any time, yelling for them to "wake up" just a minute into the game. The players apparently didn't get the message.

The Razorbacks already had.

Pringle’s presence inside, along with Malique Ewin’s minutes, reminded Arkansas why having a true anchor matters. A brief mid-first-half experiment with a small-ball lineup of Acuff, Thomas, Isaiah Sealy, Billy Richmond and Brazile didn’t last long.

GOOD PRINGLE MORNING 😤☀️😜 pic.twitter.com/ybdhTrsU61

— Arkansas Razorbacks Men’s Basketball 🐗 (@RazorbackMBB) February 11, 2026

That group had logged only seconds together before Tuesday. The Hogs went 0 of 5 from the field during that stretch. LSU responded with a 6-0 run, its largest of the night. Calipari quickly reinserted Ewin, and order returned.

It wasn’t a collapse. It was a correction.

Arkansas has flirted with Brazile at small-ball center for 52 minutes this season. The offensive projection in those minutes has been strong. The defensive projection, less so. Tuesday’s brief stretch served as a reminder that balance matters.

When Pringle and Ewin anchor the middle, the Razorbacks look complete. When Brazile roams as a help defender instead of absorbing every bump, he becomes even more dangerous.

By the second half, the only suspense was whether LSU would make more field goals than commit turnovers. The Tigers finished with 21 made shots and 14 giveaways. For much of the first half, those numbers were nearly even.

Arkansas, meanwhile, did what teams with conference ambitions are supposed to do. It handled business.

The Hogs won two games straight on the road, winning back-to-back SEC road games by 20 or more points. That's something the program hadn’t done in league play since its Southwest Conference days in 1992.

The Razorbacks didn’t need drama. They needed control.

They got it from Acuff’s drives, Brazile’s length and Pringle’s early statement on the glass.

And in a quiet building in Baton Rouge, that was more than enough.