LSU’s men’s basketball team seems to have turned something of a corner to begin SEC play.
After a rough non-conference stretch, the team began SEC play 3-1 with a ranked road win against Ole Miss. It also took down Texas A&M by double-digits on the road, but it couldn’t get the sweep when it hosted the Aggies again on Saturday in what was a 73-69 loss.
Despite the loss, coach [autotag]Matt McMahon[/autotag] thanked the home crowd for its support after the game.
“Yeah I think great atmosphere, great energy in the P-MAC,” McMahon said, per On3. “Really thankful for all the fans that came out and I thought they were really engaged and were doing everything in their power to will us to victory there down the stretch.
“We had out opportunities but we were unable to get the job done. But really thankful for the great fan support today and we’ll get back to work on Monday, coaches will get back to work tonight and tomorrow, and start preparing to get better as a team next week.”
Rebounding tells a lot of that story. After out-rebounding the Aggies 46-40 in the road win earlier this month, it lost that battle 48-34 on Saturday evening. Still, McMahon said that wasn’t due to a lack of effort.
“Physicality, and we were not physical enough in our pursuit of the initial box outs and then clearly in our pursuit of the ball and they won the battle of physicality,” McMahon said, per On3. “At their place, we won it and we won the game, they won it here and won the game.”
“I think like you respond to every game, obviously we’re disappointed in the loss. Don’t think it was from a lack of effort or a lack of togetherness, I thought we competed at a high level. We just didn’t get the job done on the glass and they made the play when it became a three-minute game, they made the plays to get the win.”
The Tigers will look to get back on track on Wednesday when it hits the road once again to take on a Georgia team that also sits at 3-2 to begin SEC play.
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