Razorbacks blasted in Bud Walton by LSU, 75-54
Development & recruiting key to new era Arkansas
HD VIDEO: Wednesday Football Press Conference
NOTEBOOK: Morris, Chavis, Craddock & Carroll
Arkansas lost for the third straight time Wednesday evening, and this time it was an embarrassing home loss to LSU, 75-54, in front of 11,818 in attendance.
It was the first loss of the season for the Razorbacks in Bud Walton Arena, and they are now 8-1 in Fayetteville. The loss dropped the Hogs to 11-5 overall, and like last season they are off to a 1-3 start in SEC play. The Tigers (11-4, 2-1 SEC) led for 39 minutes and 17 seconds of the 40-minute game after taking a 2-1 lead with 19:17 to play in the first half. When LSU took a 10-point lead, 15-5 with 14:09 to play in the first half, Arkansas never closed the lead to single digits the rest of the way.
“This was a big win for us,” LSU coach Will Wade said. “Shocked. I mean, we’re just hoping to come in here and kept it close and have a chance to win there in the end. Things just kind of snowballed.
“It’s the largest on-campus arena in the country,” Wade said. “I think it’s close to that. Phenomenal venue, phenomenal fans. I’ve never been here before but everybody tells me it’s the second-toughest venue to play at in the conference next to Rupp.”
The Tigers took a 20-point lead into halftime, 41-21, after shooting 55.6 percent from the floor (15 of 27) compared to just 18.2 percent for Arkansas (6 of 33). LSU took a 19-5 lead with 12:30 to play in the first half and led by as many as 24 points in before the break with a 36-12 lead with 4:47 to play.
Arkansas started 0 of 9 from 3-point range until Jaylen Barford knocked one down in transition to cut LSU’s lead to 17, 36-19, with 3:22 to play in the first half. Barford finished with 17 points on 6 of 15 shooting to lead all scorers.
“Our confidence is still up. We’ve got six seniors that have been here before. The same thing happened last year and we ended up going on a winning streak,” Barford said. “They were hitting a lot of shots. They’re a good team, I guess. They were just hitting a lot of shots.”
A technical foul from Arkansas coach Mike Anderson following a questionable charging call on Barford provided a little spark as the Hogs went on an 8-2 run and got the lead down to 13 points, 49-36, with 13:24 to play in the game. But Arkansas never got closer than 12 points, and LSU had the lead back out to 23, 66-43, with 7:15 remaining on an 11-0 run.
“Just disappointed. Obviously, they’re going to be judgement calls. I have no idea why the technical,” Anderson said. “I thought it was more than just that call. I thought it was a bunch of calls like that. Those are momentum calls.
“I thought they caught us real flat,” he said. “You shoot 18 percent from the field, you’re going to get these kinds of results.
“We didn’t make shots early on, and we had some open looks. We settled a lot and I thought we could have attacked them a lot more. We did in the second half, and I think that’s why we scored a lot more.”
Arkansas was 33.3 percent from the floor on the night on 19 of 57 shooting. They were much better in the second half than in the first in shooting 54.2 percent on 13 of 24 shots. Arkansas was 4 of 18 from beyond the arc (22.2 percent) and 12 of 20 (60 percent) from the free throw line.
Aaron Epps led the Tigers with 13 points and hit a huge 3-pointer that hung up on the rim before falling through that ended Arkansas’ run that had taken the lead down to 12 points in the second half. The Tigers were 29 of 55 from the floor (52.7 percent), 4 of 18 from 3 (22.2 percent) and 13 of 19 from the line (68.4 percent). LSU also out-rebounded Arkansas 38-33 and won the turnover battle 11-9.
Second Half Rundown
Arkansas came out of halftime down 20, 41-21, and they didn’t do anything to change that at the first media timeout with 15:34 to play in the game. Anderson was hit with the technical foul after he said too much in disputing a questionable charting call against Barford. The result was a pair of free throws by Skylar Mays that put the Tigers up 21, 47-26, with 16:50 to play.
After Anderson’s technical, the Hogs went on their only run of the game in taking a 21-point LSU lead, 47-26 with 16:50 to play, down to 13 points when it was 49-34 with 13:53 to go. It was an 8-2 spurt over a span of 2 minutes and 57 seconds and was about the only positive thing that happened for the Hogs all night.
Arkansas made it a 12-point game on a jumper from C.J. Jones with 10:42 left, 55-43. But in just 3 minutes and 27 seconds the Tigers had it back out to 23 points thanks to an 11-0 run, and it was suddenly 66-43 with 7:55 to play.
First Half Rundown
LSU jumped out to a 14-point lead, 19-5, with 12:30 left to play in the first half. Arkansas was just 2 of 16 from the floor in the first 7 minutes and 40 seconds of action and were being out-rebounded 12-5. LSU went on a 12-0 run from the 16:11 mark until 12:30 remained, a span of 3 minutes and 41 seconds.
The Tigers pushed the lead out to 18 points, 27-9, with 8:34 to play on a pair of free throws by Randy Onwuasor. It was a 16-point LSU lead, 27-11, with 8:22 to play in the first half, and it remained that way for the next 2 minutes and 49 seconds until an alley-oop dunk from Mays to Wayde Sims with 5:33 to play in the half.
Arkansas’ Darious Hall ended a 3-minute and 25-second drought for Arkansas when he went 1 of 2 from the free throw line to cut LSU’s lead to 20. Down 24, Hall ended a 3-minute and 55-second drought from the floor when he put back a miss by Gafford with 4:27 to go. Arkansas was 5 of 29 from the floor, just 17.2 percent at that time and 0 of 9 from 3-point range.
Arkansas ended an 0 of 9 start from 3-point range in transition when Daryl Macon found Barford in the corner in rhythm. The bucket cut LSU’s lead down to 17, 36-19, with 3:22 to play in the first half, but the Tigers got it back out to 20 at halftime and took a 41-21 lead into the intermission.
Odds & Ends
Adrio Bailey got the start over Dustin Thomas with Anton Beard, Daryl Macon, Jaylen Barford and Daniel Gafford starting, as usual. He was 0 of 3 from the field to start the game before he hit the bench. He only played 7 minutes. Thomas only saw 4 minutes of action.
Arkansas guard C.J. Jones had two air balls in his first 3 minutes of action off the bench. He was 0 of 3 total from the floor in the first half. The pair of air balls plus another missed 3-pointer in the second half put Jones at 1 of 13 from 3-point range in the last five games since going 5 of 8 with 15 points against Oral Roberts on Dec. 19.
Daniel Gafford did not get on the board until the 8:22 mark of the first half. He had just a single shot attempt before that. Arkansas was down by 16 points, 27-11, at the time.
Up Next...
Up next, Arkansas hosts Missouri (12-4, 2-1 SEC) on Saturday at 5 p.m. in Bud Walton Arena.