LSU sophomore forward Tari Eason had just gone almost the length of Dale Brown Court in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center for a rimming-rocking dunk and an eight-point lead over Arkansas.
After a Saturday afternoon of struggle, it seemed like the 12th ranked Tigers were finally about to put their collective foot on the Razorbacks' throat as the crowd of 12,374 roared their approval.
Immediately, Arkansas interim coach Keith Smart called a 30-second timeout. As a former NBA head coach, what sort of Xs and Os magic could he impart to his team to stop the bleeding?
“Forget about what just happened and breathe,” Smart said in the huddle. “I need you to get some clarity in your mind right now. Hey look guys, as bad as it is, guess what? We’re down eight points, but we’ve got a lot of time. This is a long game.’”
From that point, Arkansas exhaled mightily with a 17-2 closing run for a 65-58 SEC victory that snapped the Tigers’ 13-game home win streak dating back to last season.
The Razorbacks (12-5 overall, 2-3 SEC), playing without head coach Eric Musselman who underwent shoulder surgery Thursday, did to LSU (15-2, 3-2 SEC) down the stretch what the Tigers have done many times to opponents this season.
After Smart’s Zen-like timeout with Arkansas trailing LSU 56-48, the Razorbacks bullied the Tigers the rest of the way into six turnovers, dominated rebounding 11-5 and forced LSU to miss eight of its last nine shots.
The only basket the Tigers made was an Alex Fudge dunk to tie the game at 58-58 with 2:16 left.
Arkansas answered with seven straight points until the game-ending buzzer, starting with a straightaway 3-pointer by 6-10 sophomore forward Jaylin Williams for a 61-58 lead with 1:25 left.
“I saw my opportunity, took the three and it just felt good,” said Williams, who finished with 11 points and 13 rebounds and coerced LSU into four charging fouls. “My teammates believed in me to take the shot, so I just took it.”
Arkansas won every phase of the game that usually belongs to LSU – rebounding (41-31), points off turnovers (20-13), points in the paint (30-28), second chance points (13-10) and fast break points (10-5).
The Tigers dominated the bench scoring 30-13 over the Hogs, led by Eason with 14 points and Fudge 13. The LSU bench and starting point guard Eric Gaines (14 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals) couldn’t quite compensate for the Tigers’ other four starters who combined for 14 points, 5-of-20 field goals and 8 rebounds.
LSU senior forward Darius Days, coming off a 20-point performance in the Tigers’ win at Florida on Wednesday, was held to a season-low 3 points.
“We turned the ball over too much, we got out-rebounded, we missed some free throws. . .that’s going to get you just about every time,” LSU coach Will Wade said. “We just weren’t as clean as we needed to be coming down the stretch.
“Give Arkansas credit. They did some things defensively that were very smart, they took some things away, they picked (Eric) Gaines up full court which made it a lot tougher. We got into (our) offense a lot later than we typically do.”
LSU, the leading defensive team in college basketball, held Arkansas to 41.8 percent field goal shooting. But the Tigers, who led 33-31 at halftime, never could string together any offensive bursts.
“I am not going to say that was the toughest defensive team we have played this year. . .I would say they are more physical though,” Gaines said of the Hogs. “They came out and were ready to play.”
LSU needed the win since it now plays its next five of seven games on the road, starting with consecutive challenges Wednesday at Alabama and Saturday at Tennessee.
