Matt McMahon believes LSU competed at high level on rebounding against Texas A&M

LSU was able to secure their first SEC win of the season over Texas A&M two weeks ago in College Station. But on Saturday the Aggies got their redemption, defeating the Tigers 73-69 in a down-to-the-wire battle in the Bayou.

Texas A&M had a dominant day on the glass, winning the rebounding battle to help elevate them to a victory. Rebounding is often associated with effort, but LSU head coach Matt McMahon believes that effort was not the issue in his team’s disappointing performance grabbing boards.

“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 after the game. “At their place, we won it and we won the game, they won it here and won the game.”

The Tigers were impressive on the glass in their first matchup versus Texas A&M, out-rebounding the Aggies 46-40. But Saturday was a different story, with Texas A&M securing 48 rebounds compared to LSU’s 34.

Texas A&M is currently one of the strongest rebounding teams in the country, ranked No. 3 in the entire nation in rebounding. LSU has not been as effective on the glass, ranked No. 148, as McMahon shared how the team can continue to develop on the glass and elsewhere following Saturday’s loss.

“I think like you respond to every game, obviously we’re disappointed in the loss,” McMahon said. “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.”

“So I think if you’re about winning and you’re about building a team you learn from it and you come back in on Monday and get better and prepare for the next opportunity, which for us is Wednesday at Georgia.”

Five Tigers scored in double figures on Saturday in their loss, with Jordan Wright leading LSU in scoring for a third straight game with 15 points and 10 rebounds, notching his second double-double of the season.

The loss drops LSU’s record in conference play to 3-2 on the season, the same record as the Georgia team they’ll face next in a matchup that features two teams who’ve already shown drastic improvement compared to last year early in the season. The Bulldogs and Tigers square off on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. ET in a matchup airing on SEC Network.