The Tigers men’s basketball team finally got over the hump on Wednesday night, beating Vanderbilt at home to end a losing streak that reached 14 games.
The 84-77 win doesn’t salvage a lost season for LSU by any means, but it gives this team some semblance of momentum after it went nearly two months without a victory. Now, facing an Ole Miss team that just fired head coach Kermit Davis on Saturday, the Tigers will hope to turn one win into two.
After the win over the Commodores, coach [autotag]Matt McMahon[/autotag] offered praise for his players, who he said were “locked in” coming into the game.
Per On3:
“I thought so Sheldon, and you know the streak is something we certainly don’t spend much time talking about,” McMahon admitted. “Trying to focus on doing the things that we need to do to play better, to get better as a team and find ways to win. And I thought our players were really locked into that.”
…
“One thing that stands out, I thought Vandy obviously punched us in the face there to start the second half. Three straight drives to get it down to one, they went on another run in the second half and our guys responded both times. And oftentimes when you’re going through a losing stretch sometimes you just find another way to lose, and I thought our guys were really dialed in to doing the things necessary to win the game,” McMahon said.
Forward [autotag]KJ Williams[/autotag], who scored a season-high 35 points, echoed that sentiment.
“Just us staying the course,” Williams said. “Of course, we went on that long losing streak and us coming out tonight — the energy and preparation it took for us these last two days — we took it to the heart. We came out with the mindset ‘no matter what, we’re going to get this win.’ Credit to my teammates, they were locked in today.”
LSU may not be playing for a tournament spot (barring an improbable run at the SEC Tournament) but ending the year with some positives to build on would be huge for McMahon. Wednesday night’s win was the first step.
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