Baton Rouge, La. — LSU saw an 18-game home win-streak come to an end Saturday night, as they fell short of a comeback against Arkansas 90-89. The Tigers rallied to erase an 18-point second half deficit to hold a 1-point lead in the final minute. But after an Arkansas miss, Tremont Waters threw a long lob Marlon Taylor very early in the possession, which resulted in a turnover, giving the Razorbacks the ball back with 36 seconds to play.
“I probably should have called timeout and got us into a little bit of a set there,” admitted LSU Head Coach Will Wade on the lob pass to Taylor. “But Tremont makes great plays and 9 times out of 10 he’s going to make the right play for us. We trust him. He’s our point guard. He’s our guy and we trust him.”
“Tremont’s a hell of a player,” said LSU guard Skylar Mays. “Most plays that most people might see as a crazy play are plays that we believe he can make. That one didn’t go but at the end of the game we want the ball in Tremont’s hands and we want him to make plays for us because we know that we’re going to win that way.”
Mason Jones then scored the go-ahead lay-up for Arkansas with 22 seconds to play, and LSU didn’t have an answer on the other end, leaving the Tigers with their first conference loss of the season.
“I thought Naz had a pretty clean lay-up,” Wade said. “I’ve got to go back and look. Once Ja’vonte got it though it was a little bit of a scramble situation. I felt like we could get to the rim but they collapsed-in a little bit. It was just going to be hard to get a timeout. But Naz got a good look. We got a clean look with Ja’vonte on the pull-up and just couldn’t knock them down.”
A few other notes from the game:
— The Tigers dominated the boards 44-20
— The Tigers out-shot the Razorbacks at the line in a major discrepancy there. Arkansas was 7-11 in free throws, while LSU more than tripled their attempts finishing 32-38
— Arkansas shot lights-out for most of the game and made 13 three-pointers, compared to LSU’s 5.
— Arkansas finished the game shooting 58.3% from the floor.
— Naz Reid led LSU with 19 points, 10 rebounds, while Ja’vonte Smart had 18 points and Skylar Mays had 17.
— LSU now falls to (17-4, 7-1 SEC)
