For the majority of a long and loud Wednesday night in Bud Walton Arena, LSU did just about everything necessary to beat 14th ranked Arkansas on its home floor.
LSU limited Hogs’ star scorer JD Notae to 12 points. It fouled out Arkansas center Jaylin Williams, who had 19 points and 10 rebounds, with 4:27 left to play.
The Tigers won the rebound battle 43-34 including 22 offensive rebounds leading to 21 second-chance points, committed just 10 turnovers and made 18 of 19 free throws.
LSU did everything correct but win. The Tigers had a four-point lead with 1:47 left, but made just one of four field goals the rest of the way as a 7-2 Arkansas run gave the Hogs a 77-76 victory.
With LSU leading 76-75, Tigers’ guard Eric Gaines missed a layup against tough defense with 14 seconds left. Arkansas raced the ball into the frontcourt, LSU tried to trap Notae and he was fouled by Mwani Wilkinson with 8 seconds remaining.
Notae made both free throws for the one-point lead, which stood as the game-winning margin when LSU point guard Xavier Pinson missed an off-balance layup just before the final buzzer.
The win gave Arkansas (24-6, 13-4) the series sweep over LSU (20-10, 8-9). The Hogs beat the Tigers 65-58 in Baton Rouge on Jan. 15, which fueled LSU to vastly improve in the rematch.
“I think the last game (against Arkansas), we took for granted and coasted and lost,” said LSU sophomore forward Tari Eason, who scored a game-high 24 points before fouling out Wednesday with 1:35 left to play. “We kind of knew what this environment would be like, we knew that it would be hostile. We knew all those things, but we just wanted this one for ourselves more than anything. We wanted it badly.”
There were eight lead changes and six ties on the night in a terrifically competitive game. With LSU’s defense doubling Notae off screens, other Hogs like graduate student guard Stanley Umude (23 points, 5 rebounds) and Pittsburgh transfer guard Au’Diese Toney (18 points) had to step up their contributions.
"LSU, it's a loose-ball game, it's a deflection game, it's an extra possession game on the glass,” Arkansas coach Eric Musselman said. “Neither team backed down. Both teams pursued loose balls. Both teams dove on the floor for loose balls. It was really physical, but whoever watched the game on ESPN and whoever was here probably thought two teams played with incredible effort.”
Arkansas led by as many as five points in the first half before settling into a 35-35 halftime tie. LSU opened the second half with a 7-0 run keyed by five straight points from senior forward Darius Days.
It took the Razorbacks 7:20 to reel the Tigers back in and Arkansas led by four points when LSU had a 15-4 burst in the next 4:02 to lead by seven at 63-56 with 6:31 left.
From that point until the final buzzer, Arkansas made 5 (including 2 3-pointers) of its last 8 field goal attempts and 9 of 10 free throws while LSU missed 10 of 14 field goals.
“We played extremely hard, but we can't make the mistakes we made in the six-minute game (the final six minutes of the game) if we're going to win in tournament basketball in March," Wade said.
“We weren’t solid defensively in the six-minute game. We tried to just do some things that we hadn't done most of the game and not what you need to do in a six-minute game. We're trying to make home run plays, we just need to make singles and doubles.”
LSU closes the regular season at home on Senior Day vs. Alabama, with an 11 a.m. tipoff in a game nationally televised by CBS.
