Here’s the tonic for an Arkansas two-game SEC losing streak: Take shots at LSU and you’ll call in victorious in the morning.

Arkansas broke a two-game losing skein whipping LSU, 68-52 on Jan. 26 in Baton Rouge and shattered last week’s two-game losing skid by shooting the Tigers to bits, 87-61 Wednesday night at Walton Arena.

Coupled with West front-runner Mississippi State losing Wednesday night to Ole Miss, the runnerup Razorbacks — 18-7, 7-4 in the SEC and visiting Kentucky Saturday — are only one game behind Mississippi State’s 8-3 Bulldogs for best in the West.

LSU is on the West bottom at 9-16, 2-9.

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It appeared the Tigers would pose a threat under interim coach Butch Pierre. Since Pierre replaced coach John Brady, the Tigers had won at Florida and played close losses to nationally second-ranked Tennessee and Kentucky. LSU also returned 6-11 shot-blocking center Chris Johnson to the lineup from the broken hand that idled him when Arkansas won in Baton Rouge.

But with leading LSU scorer Marcus Thornton playing only four minutes with an injured hip Wednesday night, and the Razorbacks sizzling with a 21-0 first half run and sinking nine consecutive first half treys, this one was over well before the 51-28 intermission.

“ We missed Marcus Thornton, ” Pierre said. “ That was a big distraction for our team, but compliment Arkansas. With their five or six seniors and all the experience they have in big games, they could be a Final Four team.

“ They did a good job on the defensive end and it seemed all their shots were going down [during the 21-0 run ]. They got a rhythm going, and had the right guys taking the right shots. ”

The healthy lead allowed Razor- back Sonny Weems to log only 16 minutes and rest the ankle he “ tweaked” Wednesday night, Arkansas coach John Pelphrey said.

Weems scored 11 in his 16 minutes while senior Gary Ervin, earning a point guard start for his strong performance in last Saturday’s close loss at Mississippi State, led Arkansas with 17 points.

Stefan Welsh, the point guard Ervin replaced, scored all 10 of his points in the first half, including 3 of 4 firsthalf treys.

Center Darian Townes shot a perfect 6 for 6 while scoring 12 and guard Patrick Beverley just missed a double-double with 9 points and 9 boards.

Beverley had injured a knee in Tuesday’s practice, “ but I don’t think it bothered him today, ” Pelphrey said.

Whether playing the point or in combo with Welsh at the two-guard, Ervin and Welsh really bothered the Tigers.

“ I thought Gar y had played well, ” Pelphrey said. “ And he played well again tonight. I thought Stefan played great. We probably ran into a little bit of a break with the fact Thornton is hurt and we did play well. But I don’t think we are that much better than LSU. We just shot the ball terrific that first half. ”

Fueled by the 21-0 run, Arkansas achieved a whopping 51-28 first half Wednesday night even better than the 39-22 first half the Razorbacks posted in their 68-52 victory Jan. 26 at Baton Rouge.

LSU had led by as much as three Wednesday and Arkansas only by as much as five until three tallies into the 21-0 run. That third tally was Beverley’s old-fashioned, foul-drawing 3-point play off a steal from the press for a 22-14 lead at 11: 31. It followed Ervin’s 3-pointer and Weems ’ run-starting deuce.

Weems ’ jumper broke a 14-14 tie at 12: 03.

That 21-0 Razorback rampage also included treys by Vincent Hunter, Welsh and Weems and two buckets inside by Townes. Townes ’ tip-in closed the run at 8: 35.

The Hogs shot a sizzling 20 of 34 in the first half including an incredible 9 of 13 treys while the defense limited LSU to 10 of 31 on first-half field goals and only 1 of 6 treys.

Welsh led the Arkansas first-half onslaught, hitting three treys out of four.

“ Everybody was knocking down shots from the perimeter, ” Welsh said. “ We were making the extra pass. Both Gary and I can create off the dribble as well as knock down shots. ”

Ervin enjoyed playing with Welsh.

“ Any time you can play with another point guard who is used to being a combo guard, it helps, ” Ervin said.

Anything else opened it up against LSU ?

“ We were coming off two losses, ” Welsh said. “ We had to play lights-out. And that they had beaten Florida with those crazy fans down there, that got our attention. ”