LSU upsets No. 8 Arkansas in SEC tourney semifinals

It took two months, but the Arkansas Razorbacks finally lost another basketball game to an Southeastern Conference opponent.

LSU beat the University of Arkansas 78-71 on Saturday in the SEC Tournament semifinals in Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn.

The Tigers advanced to today’s noon championship game against Alabama and ended the No. 8-ranked Razorbacks’ winning streak against SEC teams at 12 games.

“We wanted to finish out the SEC season with no more losses,” said freshman guard Moses Moody, who led Arkansas with 28 points. “That would have been cool.”

It was the longest winning streak in SEC play for Arkansas since the 1994 national championship team also won 12 games in a row the same way the current Razorbacks did — by closing out with 11 regular-season victories and winning in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals.

The Razorbacks (22-6) hadn’t lost to an SEC team since Jan. 16 when Alabama beat them 90-59 at home.

Senior forward Justin Smith, who had 21 points, seven rebounds and two assists for the Razorbacks on Saturday, said it was difficult to have the SEC winning streak end.

“When you’re on a run like that, you kind of get used to it,” Smith said. “I don’t think we ever got complacent or anything like that, but it definitely hurts. Losing hurts every time regardless. We really wanted this game.”

Arkansas will be in the NCAA Tournament field announced today, but Razorbacks coach Eric Musselman wasn’t ready to talk about that.

“I’m mad we lost,” Musselman said. “I mean, maybe tomorrow I’ll think about that. Right now, we lost. We didn’t play well enough to win.”

Musselman said he hopefully will feel better today.

“I’m not going to feel better tonight, because we lost,” he said. “I’m not thinking about what announcement there is tomorrow.

“I’m worried about how we get better after tonight. We’ll regroup.”

The Razorbacks started 9 of 13 from the field to jump out to a 22-14 lead, but they shot 34.1% (18 of 52) the rest of the game. They played games on back-to-back days for the first time this season after beating Missouri 70-64 on Friday night.

“I thought we just didn’t have enough gas in the tank on a back-to-back,” Musselman said.

Musselman essentially went with a six-man rotation against LSU with Jaylin

Williams missing his fourth consecutive game for an undisclosed reason and Connor Vanover playing five minutes and Desi Sills four, but the Razorbacks refused to to blame the loss on fatigue.

“I’m not going to make the fatigue excuse,” said Smith, who played 39 minutes on Saturday and 31 on Friday night. “I think we stopped moving the ball.

“We were getting really good shots. We were getting open shots. Also in the first 10 minutes, they run the zone. We made them get out of that. But credit to their defense, making it difficult on us.”

Moody played 39 minutes in both SEC Tournament games.

“I did kind of feel like a physical fatigue,” Moody said. “That’s nothing to blame a loss on. You’ve got to be able to fight through that.”

Moody hit two free throws to give Arkansas a 50-47 lead with 13:25 left.

LSU went on a 17-2 run — including five points by freshman guard Cameron Thomas — to move ahead 64-52 with 7:25 left on freshman guard Eric Gaines’ layup.

The Razorbacks fought back to pull within 72-71 on Smith’s layup with 37 seconds left.

“I think we’ve showed that we’re never really out of the game, regardless of how much time is left or the score,” Smith said. “I think we were all confident that we were going to be able to make plays, and we did down the stretch.”

But the Razorbacks couldn’t make enough plays for a 13th consecutive SEC victory.

LSU senior guard Javonte Smart scored on a drive basket with 26 seconds left to make it 74-71.

“(Smart) attacked the pressure,” Tigers coach Will Wade said. “That’s as good a shot as you’ll see at the end.”

LSU guard Eric Gaines then stole the ball from JD Notae with 12 seconds left.