The Lady Tigers’ hope for an eighth consecutive first-round bye in the Southeastern Conference tournament stayed alive Thursday night on the backs of sophomore forward Courtney Jones and junior guard Katherine Graham.Jones’ career-high 22 points and Graham’s near triple-double was plenty enough for No. 20 LSU (19-8, 8-7) to roll past Arkansas, 70-53, Thursday night at the PMAC.”Courtney Jones and Katherine Graham were outstanding,” said LSU coach Van Chancellor. “Graham is igniting us lately. Jones was just unbelievable.”Graham recorded her third double-double of the season with 15 points and 10 rebounds, and Jones added five rebounds with her game-high 22 points.LSU bolstered its NCAA résumé and guaranteed the Lady Tigers at least a .500 record in the SEC for the 14th straight season. “We just needed to get to eight conference wins,” Chancellor said. “You pretty much need eight conference wins to make the tournament.”LSU is tied for fifth place in the conference with Georgia. An LSU win against Mississippi State on Sunday coupled with a Georgia loss would hand the Lady Tigers a first-round bye in the conference tournament.The top four SEC teams receive a first-round bye in the conference tournament, which begins Thursday in Duluth, Ga. “[A bye] would help a lot with our legs and make us fresher for the next games,” Graham said.Graham was removed from the game with 2:45 remaining and was only two assists shy of her second triple-double of the season.”[Chancellor] wanted me to look for my shot a little bit more, just to open up the offense,” Graham said.Jones shot 8-of-9 from the field and a perfect 4-of-4 from beyond the arc to earn 22 points. “I was just shooting it,” Jones said. “I wasn’t really thinking it would go in.”Jones’ previous season high was 11 points against Florida.”She’s been a player that I’ve struggled with trying to get her to shoot the ball,” Chancellor said. “This was her best game of the year.”Arkansas coach Tom Collen said a different Razorback guarded Jones every time she shot from 3-point range.”We let Courtney Jones get away from us from the 3-point line,” Collen said. “She can shoot it. Obviously our players didn’t get that message.”The Lady Tigers have won four of five games with the Arkansas (12-16, 4-11) victory. The 17-point win was similar to LSU’s blowouts against Florida, Auburn and Vanderbilt, where LSU won by an average of 26.6 points.Chancellor said he thought his team was “dead in the water” before the Florida game, but it has come alive down the stretch.LSU’s only blemish since Feb. 7 came at the hands of No. 5 Tennessee, 70-61, on Monday night.The Lady Tigers nailed 50 percent of their shots from the floor in the game and 56 percent in the second half.Senior guard Allison Hightower wasn’t the usual star of game, but she contributed 12 points and six rebounds.LSU’s win is its 16th straight against the Razorbacks and stretches the Lady Tigers’ all-time record to 26-9 against Arkansas.Arkansas sophomore guard Lyndsay Harris, the Razorbacks’ leading scorer, was held to 11 points.”They are clearly a team that has already punched their ticket to the NCAA tournament,” Collen said. “We knew LSU would be a good challenge.”The Lady Tigers’ final regular season game takes place Sunday at 2 p.m. against Mississippi State at the PMAC with a chance at an SEC tournament bye on the line.–Contact Michael Lambert at [email protected]