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Another Southeastern Conference game, another league loss for the Arkansas Razorbacks (11-6, 0-4 SEC), who fell to the LSU Tigers (12-5, 1-3 SEC), 78-74, on Tuesday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The Razorbacks, much like they have in previous SEC matchups, had a sizable lead drift away in the first half, but Arkansas showed more fight Tuesday as they continued to punch back every time the Tigers took the lead. However, a backbreaking 20-3 run by LSU in the second half put the Tigers on top for the rest of the game.
Center Jonas Aidoo (12 points, 10 rebounds) and forward Adou Thiero (13 points, 10 rebounds) both posted double-doubles, but they committed a combined four turnovers as well. Guard Boogie Fland was the Hogs' leading scorer, as he finished with 19 points on 6-of-17 shooting.
Following the loss, Arkansas is now in serious danger of missing the NCAA Tournament. Here are some of HawgBeat's takeaways from Tuesday's defeat...
Arkansas falls to 0-4
We've entered "uh-oh" territory now as the Razorbacks are still winless in SEC play. A season that started with so much hope has turned to dread as there is a real possibility (some might call it a probability) that Arkansas will miss the NCAA Tournament.
Every game, it's been something different. It was the lack of offensive rebounds against Tennessee. It was a stagnant offense against Ole Miss and Florida, and it was a mixture of everything against LSU.
Arkansas head coach John Calipari, his staff and his players have all talked about how difficult the SEC is this season, which it is, but look around the rest of the conference and it's hard to see enough games Arkansas can win to find itself in the field of 68.
Hogs on wrong end of 'game of runs'
Basketball is a game of runs, and that's what Arkansas did Tuesday night. The Hogs had several big scoring runs throughout the game, but found themselves on the wrong end of a massive one at the end.
Midway through the second half, Arkansas held a 50-43 lead and was on a 10-0 run over the course of two minutes. Unfortunately for the Hogs, the Tigers went on to outscore the Razorbacks, 20-3, over the next five minutes to take a 59-55 lead that they did not relinquish.
"I thought there were a couple of critical turnovers...they made some shots," Calipari said postgame. "Like, we know (Jordan Sears and Cam Carter), if you give them space, and we did, I mean he pulled up at the end of a shot clock. We worked on that. So, they deserve to win the game."
Scoring droughts have been a problem for the Razorbacks since SEC play started, and it was the main culprit against LSU.
Major free throw discrepancy
No, we're not blaming the refs tonight. But the amount of free throws LSU attempted compared to Arkansas is a glaring spot on the box score that can be attributed to this game.
The Razorbacks attempted a total of 13 free throws — only four in the second half — while LSU attempted 28. To make matters worse, the Tigers, who were a 74.9% free throw shooting team coming into the game, shot 92.9% (26-of-28) at the charity stripe.
"We did not want to foul (Sears or Carter), but to be honest, they were all making free throws," Calipari said. "(Mike Williams) jumped up. He made two. Damien made a couple, I mean, they were all making free throws, so I guess it really didn't matter."
The biggest discrepancy in the free throw department came in the second half. As mentioned above, the Razorbacks shot just four free throws in the final 20 minutes compared to 18 for LSU. The Tigers made the most of those opportunities by hitting 16 of those.
"Some of this stuff, we were just reaching in," Calipari said. "And then you foul their two best free throw shooters. You know they're going to ball fake and get to the rim. I got to watch the tape, for me to sit here and get into that deep, but we were reaching in."
