Stopping Arkansas’ basketball offense is like trying to guard an octopus.

Just about the time you think you’ve successfully controlled two or three tentacles, two or three others squeeze the life out of you.

Arkansas reserve guard Chris Lykes, who didn’t score and barely played in the Razorbacks’ one-point win over LSU just more than a week ago, ignited a game-flipping rally in Friday’s SEC tournament quarterfinals, eventually snuffed the Tigers’ last comeback bid and finished with 18 points in a 79-67 Hogs’ victory in Tampa’s Amalie Arena.

The win by the fourth-seeded Razorbacks (25-7), which has four new transfers among their top seven players that they didn’t have last season when they lost to LSU in the 2021 SEC tourney semifinals, beat the fifth-seeded Tigers (22-11) for the third time this season.

“I have to face the music,” LSU coach Will Wade said. “Arkansas is just better than us. Beat us three times this year. Just flat better than us.”

Wade was hoping a win over the Razorbacks would possibly improve LSU’s NCAA tournament seeding when the 68-team field is announced 5 p.m. CT Sunday on CBS. Even with the loss, the Tigers are likely a No. 5 seed and no worse than a No. 6.

The way LSU had played the Hogs to the final buzzer in a 77-76 loss in Fayetteville on March 2, there was hope the Tigers could finish the job Friday.

A win would have advanced LSU to Saturday’s semifinals against eighth-seeded Texas A&M, which stunned league regular season champion Auburn 67-62 in Friday’s first quarterfinal. A&M is the only team LSU has beaten twice this season.

But the Tigers didn't get a chance for a third win over the Aggies and a second straight trip to the SEC tourney title game because they didn’t pull away from Arkansas on Friday during key junctures of the first half.

After a Mwani Wilkinson corner 3-pointer sliced the Hogs’ lead to 12-11 with 13:52 left, LSU didn’t score another field goal for almost another five minutes because of five turnovers, two missed shots and a pair of made free throws in their next eight possessions.

Yet despite four of its top six players saddled with two fouls, LSU’s defense put a curtain on the Arkansas offense. The Razorbacks had a stretch in which they missed 15 of 16 shots including 13 straight clanks.

But when the smoke cleared in an 11-1 LSU run, the Tigers led by just four points at 22-18 with 4:04 left in the first half. Even worse, LSU failed to fully capitalize on Alabama All-SEC first team guard JD Notae sitting out the last 7:30 of the opening half with two fouls.

It was evident LSU missed its window of opportunity, especially when Lykes closed the half with six straight points to erase a three-point Tigers’ lead. He swished four free throws – two after a Wade technical foul with 22 seconds left – and made a steal from LSU All-SEC first team forward Tari Eason that he turned into a pullup jumper just before the buzzer for a 29-26 halftime lead.

“The guys starting off (Arkansas’ starters) came with great energy,” said Lykes, a 5-7 graduate transfer who joined the Hogs this season from the University of Miami. “I was just able to sustain it and pressure their guards. I felt like they were tired.”

While Wade stormed angrily to the locker room because of his team’s lack of execution on its final possession of the first half, Lyles’ personal scoring streak started a 19-0 Arkansas run that extended into the first 3:19 of the second half.

With Notae back on the floor to start the second half for the Hogs, Arkansas found its rhythm. Notae scored 3 points (he finished with 19, 14 in the second half) and dealt a pair of assists in the Razorbacks’ second-half opening salvo when Arkansas hit 5 of its first 8 field goals attempts while LSU missed its first 6 of 7 shots.

The Tigers’ offense dissipated into usually taking (and missing) the first available shot. Meanwhile, with Arkansas dominating second half rebounding (20 to 9 with LSU getting just four offensive rebounds), Notae was able to push the Razorbacks into a higher offensive gear.

“They were just playing harder than us, they wanted it more than us,” said LSU senior forward Darius Days, who had 14 points and 10 of the Tigers’ 28 rebounds (Arkansas had 42 including 14 offensive). “The difference is on the glass (rebounding). The proof is in the pudding. Not too much to say about that.”

Arkansas took a pair of 16-point leads before the Tigers began attacking the basket on every offensive possession. LSU managed to cut the Hogs’ lead to single digits, trailing by nine points after an Eason layup at 64-55 with 4:21 left.

Fourteen seconds later, just as he did at the end of the first half, Lykes jumpstarted Arkansas with seven points in 61 seconds on a deep 3-pointer, a weaving drive and two free throws.

And LSU was done because Arkansas never really cooled and shot 60.7 percent from the field in the second half to finish at 42.7 percent (24 of 57).

The Tigers finished at 35.3 percent (18 of 51). No LSU player, not even Eason who had a team-high 15 points, shot better than 50 percent from the field.

Even though Arkansas already owned a pair of wins this season, LSU entered the game ranked No. 16 in the NCAA NET which is factored into NCAA tourney seeding. Arkansas was ranked No. 20 in the NCAA NET prior to Friday’s tipoff.

“I've been very honest with them about what a potential loss could do today and what a potential win could do,” Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman said of what he told his team this week. “Because of the body of work that LSU has done during the course of the regular season, this was a huge win to be able to beat them.”