The LSU Tigers secured their first SEC victory Tuesday night in a down to the wire thriller in Baton Rouge, defeating the Razorbacks 78-74.

The victory didn’t come easy for the Tigers, who spent most of the first half trying to find their footing against their northern rivals. LSU shot a sloppy 34% from the field in the first half.

The Razorbacks struck first, leaving the Bayou Bengals in a game of cat-and-mouse for most of the first half.

Coach McMahon this kind of difficult, physical play is to be expected in the heart of SEC play.

“This is what it’s going to be like every night,” McMahon said in a post game press conference.

“You have to play with physicality not just at the glass but offensively and defensively if you even want to get a shot off in this league,”.

The Tigers went into halftime trailing two points to the Razorbacks but quickly turned up the heat to start the second.

Key defensive players like junior forward Daimion Collins allowed the Tigers to go on an explosive 20-3 run with just under 10 minutes left to play.

Collins was a force to be reckoned with for Arkansas, collecting 10 defensive rebounds and 4 blocked shots to shut the Razorbacks offense down.

Coach McMahon had all positive things to say about his forward after the game.

“He gave us really good rim protection…I thought his interior defense was huge for us,”.

Offensively, the scoring leader for LSU was senior Cam Carter. Carter dropped 27 points on the Razorbacks and was 10-10 on his free throws.

The Tigers free throw accuracy throughout the game (92.9%) helped the Tigers keep the lead in crucial final minutes of the game.

“We made some threes, we made a lot of free throws and we won this game because of it,” Carter said after the game.

The Tigers will need to clean up their early shooting and take control over the game early as they look forward to facing No. 11 Texas A&M in College Station on Saturday, January 18th.