After back-to-back encouraging performances against Kentucky and Missouri, the Arkansas Razorbacks (11-11, 2-7 SEC) dropped back to .500 on the year with an 95-74 loss to the LSU Tigers (11-9, 3-4 SEC) on Saturday inside Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The Tigers were lights out offensively from nearly start to finish, as they shot 54.7% from the field, 52.2% from three and 89.3% from the free throw line. Big-man Will Baker scored 25 points and he hit four threes, while junior guard Jalen Cook scored 20 points and added six rebounds.
Tramon Mark scored a team-high 20 points for Arkansas, while Jalen Graham added 18 points and four rebounds. The Hogs had 10 assists and 12 turnovers against the Tigers.
The Rundown...
Arkansas scored the first bucket on a Jalen Graham layup, but LSU proceeded to score 10 straight after that. Thanks to the efforts of Baker, the Tigers extended their lead to 20-9 by the under-12 minute media timeout. By that point, Baker had 11 of LSU's 20 points.
The next timeout came via a frustrated Eric Musselman, who wanted a break with his team down 32-14 at the 7:50 mark. LSU was 11-of-14 from the field at that point, and Baker had 13 points, while Mike Williams III had 10 of his own.
Graham and Mark were playing with two fouls and Denijay Harris checked in for Arkansas with under seven minutes to play in the first half. Both teams were in the bonus by the 5:29 mark, and the Tigers held a 32-18 advantage at the point.
Back-to-back buckets from Graham and a layup from Mark made it a 6-0 run for the Razorbacks, who cut the deficit to 12 with three minutes left in the first half.
LSU quickly gained its biggest lead of the day with a 9-0 run in just more than a minute that that made it 45-24 with 1:31 in the first half. The Razorbacks responded, though, and scored six straight to close out the half and make the deficit 45-30 going into the locker room.
Arkansas needed a strong start to the second half, but LSU opened things up by outscoring the Hogs 12-4 by the first media timeout. Just about every time Arkansas hit a shot, LSU had an answer and the Tigers were up to a 69-48 lead over the Razorbacks by the 11:55 mark.
By that point, the Tigers had pushed their game total to 10 made three-pointers and they were shooting 63.2% from the field on the day.
The Razorbacks continued to stick around and they held the Tigers without a field goal for more than four minutes, but a technical foul from Eric Musselman during the under-8 minute media timeout and LSU being in the double bonus allowed the Tigers to keep a comfortable lead.
LSU finally started to hit shots from the field, and it went on a run of 12-2 with less than four minutes to go to extend the lead to 93-65 by the 2:01 mark. Arkansas ended the game on a 7-0 run, but that only cut it to a 95-74 deficit at the final buzzer.
Arkansas will now get some much-needed time off before it hosts Georgia next Saturday at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville. That game will tipoff at 5 p.m. CT and it will be broadcast on the SEC Network.
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