Louisiana’s Baton Rouge Hot shooting from LSU won the game. LSU’s 12-for-22 shooting from outside the arc on Saturday afternoon in the Pete Maravich Center helped the Tigers to a 95-74 victory despite a team-high 20 points by Tramon Mark and 18 from Jalen Graham.
Coach Eric Musselman stated, “We have not been good defending the three all year.” We’re practicing the identical drills, but it’s impossible to compare teams from the past. When it comes to the game, just execution is lacking.”
Early on, the Tigers sensed the Bayou charm. Center Will Baker led the Tigers to an 8-for-9 start from the field in the first half, scoring 17 points. Despite having only nine triples all season, the 7-footer made three of them to grab an early 22-10 lead.
Mike Williams III also had a scorching long range game, hitting three-pointers in consecutive possessions after Baker. In the meanwhile, the Razorbacks’ offensive disarray resumed, as they started the game with five turnovers and 0 for 4 from deep. All of it added up to a 32-14 disadvantage, which was the Razorbacks’ worst halftime deficit of the season.
The two teams traded brief bursts of play; the Razorbacks came out firing first, going up 6-0, and LSU answered with a 9-0 run. The Hogs reduced the deficit to 15 points at the half, 45-30, despite only shooting 39% from the field in the opening 20 minutes. With five minutes remaining, Arkansas scored another six points to close the half. They did this by making two free throws.
The halftime break had no effect on reducing LSU’s prolific shooting. With 16 minutes remaining in the second half, Baker’s three-pointer from the corner extended LSU’s advantage to 23 points and completed a 9-for-11 shooting day that resulted in 25 points. The Razorbacks’ afternoon was summed up when Musselman was called for a technical foul for disagreeing with the refs during the under-eight media timeout. In the second half, the Razorbacks never reduced the margin below fifteen.
The Hogs will try to recover in their rematch with Georgia on February 10 at Bud Walton Arena at 5 p.m. The game can be found on fuboTV and SEC Network.
