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Entering Wednesday night's game as meer 2.5-point favorites, Arkansas rode a 21-point halftime lead to a 9-point win over the 20-10 LSU Tigers. LSU, second in the SEC standings, beat Arkansas in Baton Rouge due to a massive rebounding disparity but the Hogs had the Tigers' number in Bud Walton.

The Razorbacks finished shooting 50% from the field with seven three-pointers compared to LSU's 44% with 11 (tying a season-high for the Tigers) but it was Arkansas's ability to get to the free throw line and their care for the basketball that made the biggest difference during the penultimate game of the regular season.

The Hogs were still out-rebounded by five but only allowed 10 offensive boards by the Tigers and 14 second-chance points. Taking the big lead into halftime, Arkansas eased up and began milking the clock with 10 minutes left to play. A few missed layups and 12 missed free throws in the second half made things more interesting to end the game but Arkansas's defense still came through in the clutch. LSU had two starters foul out and five more players with four fouls.

Arkansas is now 19-11 with a 7-10 conference record. Their conference record should set the Razorbacks up to avoid playing on Wednesday, the first day of the SEC tournament, with four teams (Vanderbilt, Georgia, Missouri, Ole Miss) currently holding worse records.

What. a. season. for Arkansas junior guard Mason Jones. As if winning his fourth SEC player of the week award and being named one of five Jerry West Award finalists (after not even making the initial list of candidates) wasn't enough, Jones notched his eighth 30-point game of the season - and 10th of his career - Wednesday night against LSU.

Jones had 36 points off of 10-17 shooting and he got to the line for 14 free throw attempts for 12 makes. The Texas native and former JUCO player leads the NCAA in free throws made and attempted this season and passed Arkansas legend Sidney Moncrief for single-season free throws made (with one game still left to play).

When asked if he deserves SEC Player of the Year, Jones said this: "I do think I deserve the award, but I'm going to control what I can control. Continue to be a great teammate. I'm out here to get a W.

"It's clock work. I work every day. I know I be tired but I keep going. My teammates keep pushing me, they're matching my energy. I love it."

Arkansas senior Jimmy Whitt Jr. said he couldn't have written a better ending to his career as a Razorback and it was truly a storybook ending.

Whitt, who put up 22 points against LSU in their first matchup this season, took everything he wanted on Wednesday night. He found all of his spots and scored 26 points, going 9-17 and 8-12 from the free throw line.

"Whitt just controlled the game, we can't guard him, we couldn't guard him last time," Will Wade said after the game. "He seems like, I don't know him at all but from watching his press conference before the game, seems like an unbelievable kid and person. He was tremendous."

Whitt also had a career night for rebounds with 15 (14 defensive rebounds). He was just one defensive board shy of Nick Davis's 15-board performance against Jackson State in 1997. He's also the first Razorback to get 15 or more rebounds since Patrick Beverley in 2008.

"It's a mindset," Whitt said. "Coming into the game that was our main focus... Rebounding was the biggest key, so all week we've been practicing rebounding drills."

With a severe lack of size, Arkansas has struggled on the boards all season. In fact, it came into Wednesday with a minus-6.8 rebounding margin, the 10th-worst mark in Division I.

In no game was that more apparent than in the Razorbacks trip to Baton Rouge back in January, when the Tigers dominated the boards to the tune of a plus-29 margin. LSU actually had more offensive rebounds (23) than Arkansas had defensive rebounds (21).

Despite being outscored 26-0 on second-chance points in that game, Arkansas lost by only two points and had a chance to win in the closing seconds. That led many to think it would have won that game had it just been a little bit better in that area.

Sure enough, that’s exactly what Arkansas did. It was just minus-1 in the first half, when it built a 21-point lead, and finished the game minus-5. That helped limit the Tigers to 14 second-chance points.

In his last game as a starter, Desi Sills missed all six of his shots and failed to score despite playing 35 minutes in a loss at Florida.

Looking for a way to snap a five-game losing streak, head coach Eric Musselman moved the sophomore guard to the bench and he’s been great in the new role.

He gave the Razorbacks an immediate scoring punch when he entered Wednesday’s game, knocking down back-to-back deep three-pointers on his way to a 13-point effort against LSU. Sills' early success shooting opened the game up for Mason Jones as well.

It was the fourth straight game Sills has reached double figures. He’s averaging 16 points on 60.5 percent shooting, but where he’s really stood out is beyond the arc. Over that stretch, he is 12 of 21 (57.1 percent) from deep.

Although he’s shooting just 31 percent from three-point range as a sophomore, that number is skewed by his 2-for-32 start to the season. Since then, though, he’s shooting a much better 39.2 percent.

After a 0-14 start against Georgia, Eric Musselman knew he had to try something different this week. If Senior Night motivation wouldn't be enough to get the Hogs to play with ultimate effort, he figured a couple days of going back to basics would do the trick.

Musselman had his team in training camp mode in preparation for Wednesday night's game, spending much less time preparing for the exact sets they'd see against LSU. Having already played the Tigers, Arkansas could afford to forgo the typical pre-game prep because they could draw back on their original scouting from January.

"We knew we had to win tonight," Musselman said. "I thought we had great practices. We went back to training camp practices. We went back to shell defense and pick and rolls at six different angles on the floor."