Not for the first time — the No. 20 Arkansas Razorbacks overwhelmed the Texas Longhorns with their length and athleticism from the opening tip at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville on Wednesday night in a 105-85 victory.
In an all-time series that Arkansas entered the game leading 47-21 at home and with wins in 34 of the last 49 games, there was a certain vintage familiarity to the electric, high-paced attack deployed by the Razorbacks against the Longhorns in spending 17 seconds trailing and 1:14 tied
before using a 6-0 run that helped force a 30-second timeout by Texas head coach Sean Miller at the 17:43 mark.
By that point, senior guard Jordan Pope had committed two fouls in 20 seconds, sending him to the bench, and the Razorbacks had already scored six fast-break points with the aid of bad-pass turnovers by junior wing Dailyn Swain and sophomore center Matas Vokietaitis.
Things only got worse from there — by the first media timeout, Texas trailed 16-4 because Arkansas went on an 8-0 run with threes sandwiched around a dunk, all on the fast break.
At halftime, the Hogs led 56-34 thanks to a 27-6 edge in fast-break points as supernova freshman guard Darius Acuff Jr. scored 19 points with 3-of-4 shooting from three and eight assists in a superlative floor effort, often feeding forward Trevon Brazile, who hit all six of his shot attempts, including three triples, to score 17 points while helping to overwhelm the Horns on the other end with three blocks and two steals.
Again, those state lines were just in the first half as Arkansas shot 57.6 percent, 6-of-8 from three, and 12-of-13 from the free-throw line as the fouling virus once again infected the Texas team, ultimately creating 30 free throws for the home team. The second half was largely more of the same for the Hogs offensively, even if the Horns played on their offensive end.
Acuff and Brazile both finished with 28 points as guard DJ Wagner also turned in an efficient performance with 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting (3-of-4 from three) with three assists. The Razorbacks notched 21 assists on 35 made baskets and scored 38 fast-break points, 29 points above their season average of 19.1, which ranks third nationally.
With 10-of-27 shooting on layups, Texas was hugely impacted around the rim by an Arkansas team that impacted many more shots than the seven officially counted as blocks by forcing the Horns into one-on-one basketball compounded by any willingness to share the ball or ability to make a shot at the basket.
Vokietaitis, despite finishing with a team-high 21 points on 9-of-15 shooting, didn’t play as well as his efficiency suggested, having difficulty scoring against the length of Brazile while relying too heavily on his left hand and preference for going in that direction. Too often, Vokietaitis had a ball deflected away when trying to go up with it in traffic or had his shot altered or blocked or didn’t recognize a second defender doubling down on him.
Like Pope, Vokietaitis got into foul trouble early in the second half and eventually fouled out in 24 minutes. After picking up two fouls in the first half, Vokietaitis was whistled at the 18:20 mark when he grabbed an Arkansas player on a missed block-out attempt and then picked up his fourth 17 seconds later contesting a shot at the rim.
As Vokietaitis headed to the bench, he protested with the official and his head coach, but it didn’t matter — both fouls were mistakes, and his fourth especially costly coming so soon after the third and after Miller showed some trust in the big Lithuanian in keeping him on the court, a calculation requiring Vokietaitis to not do something exactly like he did.
Pope was already back on the bench, where he remained for the rest of the game, after picking up his fourth foul nine seconds into the second half when he was trailing on a lob attempt after a back screen and bodied the Arkansas player from behind.
After drawing praise from Miller for his all-around performance in Saturday’s win over Texas A&M in College Station, Pope committed four fouls in his four minutes of action on Wednesday with his only other contribution to the box score a missed three.
On the empty-calorie Coca-Cola to Coke Zero spectrum for Pope, it was a Coke Zero performance.
Beyond the fact that Texas didn’t visibly give up in the second half with the game well out of reach since a few minutes after tipoff, it was a Coke Zero performance from the whole Longhorns team against a Razorbacks team that looks dangerous heading into the postseason behind its freshman star and capable supporting cast.
Texas returns to the Moody Center for Senior Night against Oklahoma on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Central on SEC Network.
