Senior guard Charles Carmouche paced the Tiger offense with a career-high 26 points and LSU (17-9, 8-7 Southeastern Conference) held off a furious Arkansas rally to notch its eighth SEC win of the season, 65-60, in the PMAC – putting the Tigers over .500 in SEC play for the first time this season.
Carmouche, who surpassed 20 points for the second straight game, started the game in style, burying three 3-pointers in the first eight minutes to help the Tigers race out to a 19-8 lead by the second media timeout.
“[Junior guard] Andre [Stringer] caught me a couple of times for some wide-open threes,” Carmouche said. “When we are in transition, I think we are at our best.”
Saddled with foul trouble all evening, sophomore forward Johnny O’Bryant III was held scoreless in the first half, playing only 11 minutes. Nevertheless, the Tigers built a large lead behind a string of fill-ins on the inside.
After a jumper from Razorback junior Kikko Haydar cut the Tiger lead to nine with just more than five minutes to go, LSU ripped off a 13-0 run over the next four minutes of the half. Six-foot-five junior forward Shavon Coleman scored six of the 13 points while battling on the inside against two 6-foot-7 Razorbacks.
“It was tough [without O’Bryant],” Carmouche said. “He draws a lot of attention inside and it helps us with open, easy looks.”
Arkansas answered with a 9-0 run to close the half, scoring four in the paint. The Razorbacks grabbed three rebounds to go in the locker room with a more manageable 45-32 deficit.
The struggles without O’Bryant were magnified in the second half as the Tiger offense struggled to find the same rhythm, shooting 5-for-17 from the field and 0-for-3 from 3-point land for the final 20 minutes.
“We knew that Arkansas would continue to fight and continue to battle,” said LSU coach Johnny Jones. “Unfortunately on the offensive end we did not execute, did not make plays for the first four or five minutes [of the second half] … and allowed them to start making plays and get back into the game.”
The Razorbacks whittled the Tiger lead down to a bucket with 1:42 to go when freshman guard Michael Qualls took advantage of a Carmouche turnover and sent home a thunderous dunk to get Arkansas at 62-60.
But LSU took control defensively, holding the Razorbacks scoreless for the rest of the contest while making three front ends of one-and-one free throw attempts to secure its fourth victory in the last five games.
Hickey, who finished with 10 points and five assists, credited Carmouche as the unquestioned on-court leader who willed the Tigers to a crucial home win.
“When you see one person doing it big, we all come in,” Hickey said. “We all have each other’s back. All we have been waiting for is a leader.
