Trevon Brazile scored 17 of his 21 points in the first half as No. 25 Arkansas topped No. 6 Louisville 89-80 in the ACC/SEC Challenge on Wednesday in Fayetteville, Ark.
Freshman Darius Acuff Jr. had his first double-double with 17 points and a season-high 10 assists for the Razorbacks (6-2).
Meleek Thomas scored 17 points, Malique Ewin had 12 points and nine rebounds and Billy Richmond III contributed 10 points as Arkansas beat a Top 10 team for the first time in coach John Calipari’s two seasons.
Mikel Brown Jr. put up 22 points, Ryan Conwell posted 15 points and Sananda Fru had 14 points and eight rebounds for the Cardinals (7-1), who played their first true road game of the season.
The Razorbacks had a 46-36 rebounding advantage and turned 18 offensive rebounds into 27 second-chance points.
Louisville, challenged on the perimeter, made 8 of 37 3-point attempts (21.6%), 3 of 20 (15%) in the first half. Conwell was 3 of 12 and Brown was 2 of 13 from long distance. The Cardinals were second in Division 1 with 13.1 made treys per game coming in.
Arkansas led 47-29 at halftime and stretched it the gap to 54-34 on D.J. Wagner’s 3-pointer less than three minutes into the second half.
Louisville went on a 27-12 run to get back in the game, and J’Vonne Hadley’s layup closed the deficit to 66-61 with 8:39 remaining. Brown had eight points, including a three-point play and a 3-pointer, in that surge, and Hadley and Adrian Wooley each sank a trey.
Acuff’s layup resulted in a three-point play that put Arkansas up 79-69 with 4:45 remaining. Isaac McKneeley’s trey cut the Cardinals’ deficit to 81-76 before Brazile scored on a alley-oop dunk from Acuff.
Acuff’s layup and Ewin’s two free throws put the game out of reach at 87-76 with 1:18 left.
