Darius Acuff Jr., Billy Richmond III have career nights as No. 21 Arkansas beats Auburn

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) — Darius Acuff Jr. tied a career high with 31 points and Billy Richmond III scored a career-high 25 to lead No. 21 Arkansas past Auburn, 88-75 on Saturday night.

Acuff, who shot 10 of 15 from the field and 7 of 10 from 3-point range, made three straight 3-pointers early in the second half as the Razorbacks (19-6, 9-3 Southeastern Conference) went on a 19-4 run before the first media timeout after leading by six at halftime.

The freshman guard has scored in double figures every game this season and has now scored 20 points or more in six straight games. Arkansas has gone 5-1 in that span.

Richmond made 12 of 15 field goals to break his previous personal high of 16 points. Arkansas, as a team, shot 57% from the floor.

Auburn (14-11, 5-7) played without leading scorer Keyshawn Hall, who is averaging 20.7 points per game. Coach Steven Pearl said Hall was out for disciplinary reasons. Tahaad Pettiford scored 29 points on 11-of-18 shooting and KeShawn Murphy added 22 points on 9-of-16 shooting. The rest of the Tigers roster shot 22%.

The Tigers pulled within eight points with 8:25 left, but Richmond scored the next five points and Acuff added another 3-pointer to build Arkansas' lead back to double digits.

Acuff became the second player in Arkansas history to score at least 500 points and dish out 150 assists in a season. Lee Mayberry did it three times from 1990-1992.

Auburn plays at Mississippi State on Wednesday night.

Arkansas plays at Alabama on Wednesday night.

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