BATON ROUGE — The LSU Tigers used a 16-0 run in the final seven minutes of the game to win going away, 65-52, over Arkansas Saturday afternoon in the Maravich Assembly Center.
The Tigers, winners of four straight, are now 16-4 overall and 6-3 in the Southeastern Conference entering the final four weeks of the conference season. Arkansas falls to 11-9 overall and 3-6 in the league.
The Tigers and Razorbacks, after battling through a first half of ties and lead changes before LSU scored the final four points to go up 35-32 at the intermission. LSU had an eight point advantage, 44-36, with 14:57 to go before Arkansas rallied back to eventually tie the game at 49-49 on a lay up by Jonathan Modica with 7:05 to go.
Arkansas wouldn’t score again until a three-pointer in the final five seconds.
Some 15 seconds after the tie, Darrel Mitchell made two free throws to give LSU a 51-49 advantage. Darnell Lazare put back his own miss to push the lead to 53-49 (4:47 to play). Xavier Whipple made two free throws at the 3:03 mark (54-49) and lay ups by Jaime Lloreda (56-49) and Antonio Hudson pushed the lead to 58-49 with 1:52 to play and the paid crowd of 9,646 was beginning to feel it.
The scoring continued was Whipple hit two more free throws (60-49, 56 seconds) and Regis Koundjia had a breakaway dunk for a 62-49 advantage (31 seconds). Lloreda added a free throw at the 22 second mark and after LSU cleared the bench, Charlie Thompson made to free throws with 12 seconds left to complete the 16-0 run, holding Arkansas scoreless for seven minutes before Charles Tatum hit the three for the final score with five seconds left.
Lloreda continued dominating the SEC in rebounding and again had a big game scoring to lead LSU with 18 points and 17 rebounds, hitting 7-of-11 field goal attempts. Darrel Mitchell had 15 points and Brandon Bass 14. Matt Jones led Arkansas with 14 points and 10 boards, while Ronnie Brewer had 13 points.
“I thought at halftime offensively we were pretty good,” said LSU Coach John Brady. “I thought 35 points was good for us. They were committed to playing a zone the whole first half. Our execution against the zone was good. At the half, we only had four turnovers. The transition defense was key for us. We gave them two breakaway layups in the first half and I don’t think we gave them any in the second half. We didn’t put them on the foul line an extraordinary number of times.
“We won the rebound battle,” Brady said. “Our team was able to get 16 offensive rebounds. That was a key for us, to be able to get to the board offensively. Down the stretch, Jaime Lloreda does what he does. He gets every rebound. When we have trouble to score a bit, he would just go get the ball and put it back in the goal.
LSU now has a week off to prepare for a road trip next Saturday (Feb. 13) against Florida at the O’Connell Center in Gainesville. The Tigers return home to face Auburn on Wednesday, Feb. 18.
“To have a week off and have won four in a row and to be 6-3 (in the SEC) is good for this team. Our team feels good about where it is. We look forward to the next seven games.”