Macon proves you can go home again
You can go home again.
Daryl Macon proved it. Coming home as an Arkansas Razorback for the last time to the Little Rock and North Little Rock vicinity where he starred for Little Rock Parkview, senior guard Macon scored a gamehigh 25 points in Arkansas’ 8864 trouncing of the Troy University Trojans last Saturday night at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock.
When the otherwise Fayetteville home-based Razorbacks next play in North Little Rock next season, Macon presumably will be playing professionally, whether in the NBA or overseas.
Macon made his hometown finale a fond farewell, not just scoring 25 points, but the way he scored them. Strafing the Trojans’ zone, he hit 5 of 9 from distance on an 8 for 14 shooting night from the field and added 4 of 4 from the line. His game wasn’t consumed just in scoring. Macon also dished five assists, grabbed three rebounds and made three steals.
He said he could not have fathomed a better homecoming before more family and friends than he could remember.
“I really don’t know,” Macon replied to Chuck Barrett’s postgame radio question regarding the family and friends he assumed were in attendance. “I think it was about 30 to 40.”
To play well meant a lot but not the most for his victorious hometown farewell.
“It wasn’t just about going out there and playing well tonight,” Macon said. “I wanted to go out there and give it my all. It’s my last time ever playing in this arena in front of my hometown in front of my family. It was big.”
The sellout crowd jamming Verizon to see the now 8-2 Razorbacks trash Troy the week after a packed Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville saw the Razorbacks rout the then-14th-ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers made it even bigger.
“It was a great environment tonight,” Macon said. “I loved it. It’s my last time playing in my hometown, man. I’m going to miss it. We just wanted to go out with a bang.”
It seemed his teammates realized whose trigger finger was ready to shoot against Troy in the Rock even with his first shot a misfire.
“I just had to trust my shot and had to get it back going,” Macon said. “A big shoutout tonight to my teammates for finding me. I wouldn’t have had the night I had tonight without them A big shoutout to those guys.”
The opponent helped. Led by shooting guard Wesley Person Jr. and his 25 points tying Macon for game high, coach Phil Cunningham’s Trojans opted to run with coach Mike Anderson’s Razorbacks.
“It was very fun,” Macon said. “This is our style of play up and down. I don’t think anyone in the country wants to go up and down with us when we are at our best.”
Macon was at his best in all phases, Anderson said of his three steals and five assists against zero turnovers.
“Daryl had a big night coming home,” Anderson said. “You really enjoy seeing that take place. The thing I really like about it is he did other things, too. He took care of the ball, and he made some plays defensively.”
While Person, entering the game averaging 20.3 points, matched Macon’s 25, against Arkansas’ harassing defense, the Trojans shot only 30 percent, 18 of 59, compared to Arkansas’ 34 of 54 for 53 percent. Arkansas blistered an 18 of 29 first half fueled by a 17-2 run from which the Razorbacks never looked back
“It starts on the defensive end,” Macon said. “You get transition buckets, open shots and then the other team gets tired. Tonight we had to start it off our defense, and then our offense came.”
So did Arkansas’ depth. Led by sophomore reserve forward Adrio Bailey’s 10 points and a perfect eight points by senior forward and Forrest City High grad Trey Thompson off the bench, who was 3 for 3 from the field and 2 for 2 from the line while stuffing the stat lines with three rebounds, two blocked shots, an assist and a steal in his 14-minute farewell to the Rock, Arkansas’ bench outscored Troy’s bench, 33-12.
Macon wasn’t the only Arkansas senior starting homecoming guard making his home finale a big one. Anton Beard, along with Thompson, the only four-year Razorbacks of Arkansas’ six seniors, scored 11 points while hitting 5 of 10 from the field while dishing two assists, grabbing two rebounds and making a steal.
“It was a nice win,” Beard said. “We came out with the mindset that we wanted to make sure the crowd had a good time at the game. We had a good amount of energy, and we just wanted to keep that up for the fans.”
The energy they brought post-Minnesota from Fayetteville to North Little Rock they seek again Tuesday night at Walton hosting the Tulsa-based Oral Roberts University Golden Eagles.