Toll on the road

BATON ROUGE, La. — A golden opportunity to seize an elusive road victory literally slipped through Arkansas’ fingers Saturday.

The Razorbacks committed 19 turnovers - a season high in SEC games - and lost to struggling LSU 71-65 before a crowd of 9,352 at the Maravich Assembly Center.

Arkansas (16-7, 4-4) fell to 0-6 on the road with its third loss to an SEC West opponent by eight points or less.

The SEC’s leader in turnover margin, Arkansas forced just 16 turnovers and had seven steals to the Tigers’ nine.

LSU (13-9, 3-5), which had lost six of its previous eight games, played sticky defense that limited Arkansas to 40.4 percent shooting.

“Boy, we needed that,” LSU Coach Trent Johnson said. “Obviously, after our last game vs. Kentucky, we were pretty fragile, make no mistake about it.”

LSU also attempted 33 free throws to Arkansas’ 23, which left Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson displeased.

“We had some controversial plays that I thought probably should have went our way, and so with that being said, that’s life on the road,” Anderson said. “We just couldn’t make the right plays at the right time.

“I just thought a lot of times when we went to the basket - they shot 33 free throws, we shot 23? That’s controversial to me.”

Arkansas felt the Tigers, whom they had beaten 69-60 in Fayetteville on Jan. 14, were vulnerable after losing three in a row and five of their previous six games.

“Very disappointing upset,” said Mardracus Wade, who led the Razorbacks with 15 points and three steals. “I expected my team to come out and win today, and we didn’t come out with the W.”

Julysses Nobles scored 14points and Ky Madden added 10 for the Razorbacks, whose last road victory came last Feb. 26 at Auburn.

Ralston Turner, who made 7 of 8 free throws, led LSU with 16 points. Justin Hamilton added 13 points and 11 rebounds, while Anthony Hickey and Eddie Ludwig scored 12 each.

Freshman Johnny O’Bryant, a McDonald’s All-American in high school who missed the first game against Arkansas with a broken hand, contributed eight points and 11 rebounds for the Tigers. He and Hamilton had five offensive rebounds each, giving LSU numerous second-chance opportunities.

LSU used a 10-0 run midway through the first half, including Eddie Ludwig’s three-point play and Turner’s three pointer, to wipe out an 11-6 Arkansas lead. The Tigers never trailed again.

Wade connected on a three-pointer for Arkansas to cap an 18-9 run and whittle LSU’s lead to 50-49 with 9:03 remaining, but the Tigers responded with an 8-2 run to regain control.

The Hogs narrowed the deficit to 65-61 and had possession with 49 seconds remaining after LSU’s Chris Bass missed two free throws. However, Nobles had the ball tipped away in the lane by Hickey, and the Tigers’ Andre Stringer made two free throws to push Arkansas back.

“Turnovers killed us,” Nobles said. “Me, I know I was the worst today with [six] turnovers.

“We could have had this game, but we shot ourselves in the foot. Like coming down the stretch, crazy turnovers and stuff like that.”

LSU, which shot just 34.8 percent in the loss at Arkansas, made 24 of 58 shots (41.4 percent) Saturday.