BATON ROUGE, La. - They had to win this game. Had to. They had to leave Baton Rouge with a victory.

That's all the Arkansas Razorbacks heard this week. Must-win, do-or-die - Hogs fans surely used both terms heavily this week in discussing Saturday night's contest in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

And from opening tip to final whistle, the Razorbacks scrapped with an intensity that proved they realized the consequences of a loss. Sonny Weems scored 19 of his 21 points in the first half, and Arkansas held LSU to 29 percent shooting in its 68-52 victory.

"We definitely knew this was a very important game," senior point guard Gary Ervin said. "We sat back at the hotel and saw that (SEC West-leading) Mississippi State won, and that gave us a boost."

Arkansas (14-5, 3-2) kept pace two games behind the Bulldogs and sent the Tigers to their eighth straight defeat for one elementary reason. They bought into the mentality they talked about all week.

Weems spoke confidently this week that Arkansas would look like a "different team" Saturday night, like a team that valued the collective more than the individual. The Hogs followed through on his assertion, just as first-year coach John Pelphrey expected, and won at LSU for the first time since 2001.

Their ever-present hustle wasn't anymore apparent than on the boards, where Arkansas grabbed five more rebounds than LSU, including Patrick Beverley's career-high 15.

"Coming in, I really believed our effort would be the best of the year. I really believed that," Pelphrey said. "I thought we'd be a better team than we've been all year long. I thought we'd play harder than we have all year.

"And I felt like we did do that."

LSU (7-12, 0-5) never could withstand Arkansas' defensive pressure. The Razorbacks pressed full-court the entire evening and constantly frustrated the Tigers' two leading scorers, Marcus Thornton and Anthony Randolph. That duo combined for 34 points but shot 12-of-36 from the field.

Still, the Razorbacks watched a 39-22 halftime lead dwindle to 42-34 in just more than five minutes to start the second half.

"Sonny kept saying, 'Everybody makes a run,'" Beverley said. "They made their run, and it was up to us to keep our composure."

The Hogs did more than just stay calm. LSU cut the Razorback lead down to eight points only one more time.

Sophomore guard Stefan Welsh and senior center Darian Townes drained key shots soon after the LSU spurt, but the undisputed offensive star Saturday night for Arkansas was Weems. The Razorbacks drained 10 of their 15 attempts from 3-point range, and Weems drained all five of his tries, all before halftime.

Known lately for his increased scoring after halftime, Weems didn't wait Saturday night. In fact, he nearly outscored LSU in the first 20 minutes before a mostly-quiet, announced crowd of 8,860.

The West Memphis native drained seven of his 11 first-half shots, and the first shot Weems took seemed to foreshadow his first-half scoring spree. On Arkansas' second possession, senior center Steven Hill grabbed an offensive rebound and immediately kicked the ball out to Weems for a 3-point try.

All net for Arkansas' first points.

"It was unbelievable," Ervin said. "That's just something that we look for. It was Sonny's day. He came out, made that first shot and just stayed confident."

Weems didn't score in the second half until downing two free throws with 19 seconds left. But Weems' second-half struggle didn't affect the Hogs, who won for the first time in 13 days and did so as a "different team."

"I thought it was our best effort of the year," Pelphrey said. "We need to duplicate this."