Sonny Weems found a way to harness his aggression. Weems asserted himself into the Arkansas gameplan to the tune of a season-high and game-high 21 points to power a 90-59 rout of Northwestern State Wednesday night at Bud Walton Arena.

Weems said head coach John Pelphrey had been encouraging him to be more aggressive offensively and that advice paid big dividends. Weems ’ 21 points eclipsed his previous seasonhigh of 16 scored against Virginia Commonwealth on Nov. 18 and again on Nov. 28 in a win over Missouri.

Weems shot 9 of 15 from the floor and 3 of 4 from the freethrow line.

“ For whatever reason, he attacked the basket more tonight, ” Arkansas coach John Pelphrey said. “ Some of that stuff isn’t teaching. It’s just Sonny being Sonny. ”

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Weems quickly went to work Wednesday night with a layin off a Charles Thomas steal just two minutes into the first half. But it wasn’t until the 12: 25 mark of the first half that he began his show with an alleyoop dunk off a Darian Townes lob. Weems ’ dunk gave Arkansas a 15-7 cushion.

“ It kind of felt like one of my old high school games when I’d get like four or five dunks, ” Weems said. “ I try to make the point guards look good when they throw it up to me. Coach called a lot of them in practice so I knew we’d see it a lot in the game. ”

Weems wasted little time going back to the playground with another slam just 17 seconds later, this time off his own steal.

“ When I dunk it fires up the team and I love to see them get fired up, ” Weems said. “ After I got the two dunks I felt like it might be my night. I just wanted to come out and be more aggressive and not so lackadaisical.

“ Nothing changed with my game. I just got after it and stepped it up a little bit. Coach Pelphrey has been telling me to be more aggressive on the offensive end and that’s what I tried to do. It was great to have a game like that getting close to the break. ”

Weems was equally effective in both halves, scoring 11 in the first and 10 in the second.

And it wasn’t just dunks that helped Weems propel the Hogs. His jumper with 11: 25 left in the first half pushed the gap to 19-7.

“ My teammates have been telling me since the start of the season to be more aggressive, ” Weems said. “ I’ve just started to look for my shot more. I played to my strengths, which is my mid-range game and transition game. ”

Weems hauled in more applause in the second half with another alley-oop dunk off a Gary Ervin pass over 6-5 Colby Bargeman at the 7: 16 mark to push the lead to 79-47. Weems’ performance also drew praise from Northwestern State coach Mike McConathy.

“[Weems ] is just a very talented athlete and it showed tonight, ” McConathy said.