Three young girls wandered around the PMAC after LSU defeated Arkansas looking for LSU sophomore forward Craig Victor.
The 6-foot-10, 235-pound big man was busy with the media, but the trio of children waited, all with bows in their hair, a basketball under one arm and a sharpie in the other hand.
The girls waited and waited.
Then, after several minutes of waiting for Victor to wrap up a fury of post-game interviews, they got their time with the man of the hour.
The three approached Victor, nervously, after the sophomore knocked in the go-ahead bucket to give LSU a 76-74 win against the Razorbacks (9-8, 3-2 Southeastern Conference) on Saturday in the PMAC.
It was Victor’s night, as the media portrayed, but Tigers’ hero had a few kind words for the group as he autographed their LSU monogrammed basketballs.
“Y’all make good grades in school now, OK,” Victor said as the girls giggled and anxiously stood in front of what some LSU fans called Saturday night’s savior.

Craig Victor met by three girls after hitting go ahead bucket. He told them, “Y’all make good grades now.” #LSU pic.twitter.com/jl7Az2iaY7
— Christian Boutwell (@CBoutwell_TDR) January 17, 2016

But, to answer the media’s question about Victor’s final shot, he seemed pretty lucky.
“The ball fell in my lap,” he said. “And I was able to make it.”
Victor said Saturday’s victory, which moved the Tigers to 11-6 overall and 4-1 in SEC play, was a team effort along with his two go-ahead points.
To say the least, the rest of the team and Victor escaped with a win after Arkansas ran the length of the floor with 3.8 seconds left and missed what would’ve been a game-winning 3-pointer from the right wing.
Escaping with a win against the SEC’s most prolific scoring offense delights LSU coach Johnny Jones.
“We didn’t hit on all cylinders tonight,” Jones said. “We didn’t play our best. But, we were able to get a victory against a very tough opponent. When that happens, I think that’s a great sign of the team growing.”
The team’s growth was evident, but in the first half, team-wide development of any sorts went amiss.
But there were some positives.
Despite giving up 40 points to Razorbacks in the first half, the Tigers avoiding foul trouble for the third straight game, posting only seven fouls through the first 20 minutes.
It was a pleasing number after Jones had three players from his “new” starting lineup sidelined for most of the first half of Wednesday’s game with two fouls.
Jones, though, went with the same starters from Wednesday’s contest — replacing junior Tim Quarterman and freshman Antonio Blakeney for senior Josh Gray and sophomore Jalyn Patterson due to efficiency and effort in practice.
With the lineup settling into its second consecutive game together, LSU came out the gates slow, a recurring theme for the Tigers this season.
LSU captured an early lead behind a quick six-point boost from Gray and a rebounding frenzy from freshman forward Ben Simmons who tallied 11 in 20 minutes. But the Tigers failed to maintain the lead as it headed into the break down four points.
But as many games went this season, LSU pulled it all together in the second half.
Simmons and Victor bruised and bumped their way to grabbing 30 of the Tigers 37 rebounds in the game and scored 24 of the team’s 40 second half points.
Jones went into halftime down four points and asked for a more aggressive interior presence from his two post players.
And the duo delivered.
Although the shots in the post seemed like gimmes for Simmons and Victor, Simmons said tonight wasn’t easy for the projected No. 1 pick in the upcoming NBA Draft.
“Tonight was pretty rough for me, personally,” he said. “I am just happy my team won. I struggled a little bit getting to the rim and getting calls. It was one of those games.”
Simmons – who compiled only four points, three turnovers, a missed dunk and an air-balled an 18-footer in the first half – said the Tigers offensive attitude had to change as LSU headed into the second period.
It did.
“That was the key, to go at their bigs,” Victor said. “We had to go inside-out.”
“I just started attacking more and being more aggressive,” Simmons said.
But, beyond Simmons’ performance, the key to the win was defensive pressure against the SEC’s highest-scoring trio — junior guard Dusty Hannahs, senior Anthlon Bell and junior forward Moses Kingsley.
Hannahs, the Razorbacks three-point sharpshooter, was held to only 8 points, less than half of his season average of 16.5 per game.
Bell put together a solid 19-point outing on 50 percent shooting from the field.
But Arkansas’ leading scorer, Kingsley at 17.3 per game, was limited to 11 points by Victor.
“I think I did very well against him,” Victor said. “We got the win. The rest is history.”