BATON ROUGE — Arkansas took out six years of frustration and beat LSU over the head with it.

The Razorbacks defeated the Tigers 68-52 Saturday to end a six-year losing streak at Maravich Assembly Center.

Arkansas (14-5, 3-2 SEC ) hadn’t won at LSU in 2, 525 days, since beating the Tigers 59-52 on Jan. 27, 2001.

“We weren’t worried about the past; we just knew we needed this game,” said Razorbacks senior forward Sonny Weems, who scored a game-high 21 points, “It feels great to get this one.”

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Arkansas had lost back-to-back SEC games, including 70-66 at home to South Carolina and 82-69 at Georgia.

Razorbacks Coach John Pelphrey was so upset about his team’s lack of effort at Georgia that he held at 1: 30 a. m. practice on Sunday after Arkansas returned to Fayetteville.

“After beating LSU, we can rest when we get home,” said Razorbacks senior guard Gary Ervin, who had 10 points and five assists. “That’s going to feel good.”

The Razorbacks will have today off, Pelphrey confirmed, after playing “the hardest we have all year” in beating LSU.

“I felt we’d play hard,” Pelphrey said. “And on top of that we played pretty well, too.”

The Razorbacks shot especially well from three-point range, hitting a season-high 10 three-point baskets in 15 attempts. The 66. 6 percent on three-pointers also was an Arkansas season-best.

Weems hit 5 of 5 three-pointers, all in the first half, and Razorbacks sophomore guard Patrick Beverley hit 4 of 7 three-pointers and finished with 14 points and a career-high 15 rebounds.

“We shot well, but the big thing was our defense,” Weems said. “It was our defense that really won it for us.”

LSU got 20 points from junior guard Marcus Thornton and 14 from freshman forward Anthony Randolph, but as team shot 29 percent from the field (20 of 69 ), including 5 of 26 on three-pointers.

The Tigers (7-12, 0-5 ) lost their eighth consecutive game and have lost their first five SEC games for the first time since the 1971-1972 season, the season before Dale Brown arrived as Tigers coach.

The Razorbacks moved into sole possession of second place in the SEC West with Ole Miss losing at Mississippi State and Auburn losing at Alabama.

Mississippi State leads the West at 5-0.

LSU outscored Arkansas 8-0 to start the second half, including two three-point baskets by Thornton, to pull within 39-30 with 17: 08 to play.

The Razorbacks, who missed their first five shots of the second half, finally scored on a three-point basket by sophomore guard Stefan Welsh to make it 42-30.

Randolph’s dunk cut Arkansas’ lead to 44-36, but eight points was as close as the Tigers could draw.

The Razorbacks pushed their lead to 51-38 with 11: 57 left as Beverley hit a three-pointer, senior center Steven Hill hit two free throws and senior forward Darian Townes scored on a tip as Arkansas re-established control of the game.

Ervin scored on a drive with 43 seconds left in the first half to give Arkansas a 39-22 lead.

Randolph hit two baskets to help the Tigers to a 5-3 lead.

The Razorbacks then outscored LSU 23-6 over a 7: 47 span, including eight points by Weems on two three-point baskets and dunk off a rebound, to move ahead 26-11 with 8: 59 left in the first half.

A Weems three-pointer gave Arkansas its largest lead of the half at 18 points, 34-16, with 4: 27 left.

Thornton scored six consecutive points to pull the Tigers within 34-22.

Weems then hit another threepointer in the Razorbacks’ 5-0 scoring surge to end the half.