Arkansas 78, No. 24 Vanderbilt 63

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) -- Blake Eddins has such meager statistics that any solid performance means a revision of his<br>career bests.<br><br>Wednesday night, he set personal highs for points (16), minutes

Wednesday, February 23rd 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) -- Blake Eddins has such meager statistics that any solid performance means a revision of his
career bests.

Wednesday night, he set personal highs for points (16), minutes played (28), rebounds (five) and field goals made (five). Making
only his second start, Eddins scored 11 points in the first 101/2 minutes and Arkansas opened a 25-point first-half lead en route to a 78-63 victory over No. 24 Vanderbilt.

The Commodores, fresh from completing a season sweep of seventh-ranked Tennessee, looked uninspired and overmatched against
an Arkansas team hoping to earn an NIT bid.

Vanderbilt (17-7, 7-6 Southeastern Conference) missed 15 of its first 18 shots.

"The big thing tonight was Blake Eddins," said Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson. "He got us going. It's a funny game. He hit some shots for us and the basket got bigger for everyone. He made plays and he made plays on defense with his instinct."

Eddins had scored a total of 13 points in 12 previous SEC games. Arkansas (14-12, 6-7) ran off 12 straight points for a 34-9 lead with 5:30 left in the first half. The run started on Alonzo Lane's dunk over Sam Lekwauwa and Teddy Gipson turned another bad Vanderbilt pass into a dunk.

At that point, Arkansas had scored 14 points off eight Vanderbilt turnovers.

Joe Johnson drove into traffic along the baseline, but passed outside to Eddins for the freshman's third 3 and a 20-point lead.

Gipson came down with a rebound and fired to Chris Walker who beat Vanderbilt downcourt for 31-9. Seconds later, Vanderbilt missed from in close and Dan Langhi, the leading scorer in the SEC, got the rebound 2 feet from the basket. Unchallenged, he missed.

At the other end, Arkansas missed and the Razorbacks' Larry Satchell was the only player under the basket for the rebound.

Eddins led Arkansas with 16, including 12 in the first half. Johnson finished with 15.

Langhi finished with 26, including 14-of-15 free throws.

"He scored a lot of points, but we limited him to six shots in the first half and his points were non-factor points," Richardson said.

Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings did not start Langhi because the star player confronted an official at the end of the Tennessee game.

With him on the bench, Vanderbilt had three turnovers in the first four minutes and only took four shots in that time. Meanwhile, Arkansas was 4-of-8 on its way to a 10-3 lead.

"I don't think not starting Dan made us lose the game," Stallings said. "He deals with things in a classy way. They didn't give us many open looks, and when we got them, we were surprised and missed the shots."

The Commodores shot 31 percent, their low for the year. "It was bad for us to catch Arkansas after two straight home losses," Stallings said. "We were completely outplayed. It is my responsibility as a coach to get them ready. Sometimes it's not who you play, but when you play them."

The Razorbacks led by 16 at halftime. After Lane blocked consecutive shots, including one by Langhi, Chris Walker hit a 3 for a 49-28 lead barely four minutes into the second half.

Lane's layup with 11:17 left made it 60-32.