Patrick Beverley looked up at the scoreboard and couldn’t believe what he was seeing Wednesday night.

A 21-0 run and a 35-14 lead with 8: 05 remaining in the first half against LSU baffled the sophomore and his teammates. The run took just 4: 13 off the clock.

Beverley and LSU didn’t know what hit them.

“ Actually, I didn’t even know it was that big of a run. You kind of look up and it’s kind of close. You look up again, you’re up 21 points, ” Beverley said.

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“ I didn’t even know, ” point guard Stefan Welsh said. “ I looked up and we were up by seven. I looked up again and we were up by 20. We just started knocking down our shots. ”

Arkansas (18-7, 7-4 SEC ) certainly looked the part of a hot-shooting team in the first half of its 87-61 win. After starting 0 of 3 from threepoint range, the Hogs hit their next nine 3-point attempts and defensive intensity was just as important.

In games past it had been Sonny Weems keying runs with consecutive three-pointers and steals. Wednesday was different, however.

“ It wasn’t like Mississippi State when Sonny made them all, it was different people, ” Arkansas coach John Pelphrey said. “ I thought there was some good extra passing. Stefan gave us a big boost in there. It was good to see. ”

Maybe it has something to do with the opponent. Arkansas hit 10 of 15 three-pointers against LSU in Baton Rouge, La., on Jan. 26. The Razorbacks’ 11 of 23 clip Wednesday wasn’t necessarily a better percentage, but the firsthalf run and barrage was similar to the Hogs’ first-half pounding last month against the Bayou Bengals.

“ It seems as though the right guys were taking the right shots, ” LSU interim coach Butch Pierre said. “ They had a flow going. ”

Five Hogs hit 3-pointers in the game.

“ We’ve been shooting a lot of practice, ” Beverley said. “ It’s just a lot of guys stepping up and being aggressive and knocking down their shots. ”

Beverley was hampered with a strained MCL in his right knee that he suffered in practice Monday when he and teammate Charles Thomas collided. He still played a team-high 33 minutes and said he had a lot of pain while playing.

Welsh and Gary Ervin, however, stepped up and were the stars of the night at the two guard positions against the Tigers.

Ervin, starting for the first time since the Hogs’ loss to Providence on Nov. 16, scored 17 points and Welsh hit 3 of 4 3-pointers in the first half on his way to a 10-point effort.

“ Point guard play is important on every basketball team, ” Pelphrey said. “ Those two guys make us play well. You don’t find many games like this in the SEC and you can point to those two guys making that happen for us. ”

Pelphrey said he still doesn’t feel too comfortable with Welsh and Ervin in the backcourt as the Hogs prepare to travel to the coach’s alma mater Kentucky on Saturday.

“ If I’m getting this every night, I’m feeling very comfortable, ” Pelphrey said. “ But I know tomorrow is a new day and we have been up and down a bit on the road. We have yet to compete for 40 minutes in terms of a high, high level. I wouldn’t just put it on Stef and Gary, I’m concerned across the board. ”

But Pelphrey still keeps encouraging his guards and sometimes it pays dividends on the court.

“ I’ve been struggling all year from the 3-point line. He tells me to keep shooting, ” said Welsh, who had hit just 26. 7 percent of his 3-point attempts entering the LSU game. “ He never tells me to stop taking shots. Tonight was just one of those nights my shots started falling for me. Everybody’s shots were falling. ”