Tigers’ hot shooting simply too much for Hogs

BATON ROUGE, La. — Despite shooting 55.0 percent from the floor, Arkansas fell on the road Saturday afternoon 94-86 to LSU.

Arkansas made 26 of its final 35 shot attempts, but the Razorbacks had a hard time stopping LSU from behind the arc.

The Tigers went 15-of-30 from behind the arc, getting 47.9 percent of their scoring production from deep.

Arkansas did a good job early of protecting the paint, making it difficult for LSU to get the ball inside.

Arkansas forced five early turnovers, leading to a pair easy lay-ups. The Razorbacks outscored the Tigers 12-4 in the paint at one point in the second half.

This would force LSU to start taking shots from the outside, where the Tigers would sink six of their first 13 shots from behind the arc, to give the Tigers a 28-16 lead.

LSU went on a 10-0 run, as Arkansas went on a five minute, 10 second scoring drought.

Arkansas would rattle off a 7-0 run to cut the Tiger lead to five, but LSU would go into the break up eight, 43-35.

Senior forward Trey Thompson was big for Arkansas in the first half, leading the Hogs with nine points and three rebounds.

To start the second half, Arkansas and the Tigers would trade baskets, as LSU would stretch their lead to as many as 13, hitting four of their first five three-point attempts in the period. Arkansas would hang around though.

Down nine, Arkansas went on a quick 5-0 run to cut the Tiger lead to four with a Barford three.

That is as close as Arkansas would get. Senior guard Daryl Macon would lead Arkansas with 22 points on 7-of-12 shooting, to go with five assists and two rebounds.

Macon becomes the first Razorback since Corliss Williamson in 1994-95 to record five straight 20-point efforts.

Barford followed with 15 points, four rebounds and two assists. After scoring nine in the first half, Thompson finished with 11 points, while senior guard Anton Beard tied him with 11 of his own.

Freshman Daniel Gafford was the fifth Razorback to finish in double figures, scoring 10.

Arkansas returns home on Tuesday to host the South Carolina Gamecocks at 6 p.m. on ESPN2.