Matt McMahon, Adam Miller talk LSU loss to Texas Tech

LSU could not match the Texas Tech Red Raiders in key plays in the final 8:59 of Saturday’s SEC/Big 12 Challenge game at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center and dropped a 76-68 decision.

The Tigers hit the midway point of league play on Wednesday night as they play the late Wednesday tilt on the SEC Network at 8 p.m. at Missouri. LSU returns home next Saturday for a 3 p.m. game with nationally-ranked Alabama.

Head coach Matt McMahon and guard Adam Miller broke down LSU’s loss on Saturday with the media below.

LSU Head Coach Matt McMahon

Opening Statement… “Credit to Texas Tech on the win today. Disappointing loss for our team. I thought there were certainly some areas that were much improved for our program today. We came out in the second half and were able to get the lead, go up by five with nine minutes to play. We held them to 10 points the first 11 minutes of the second half.

“We did a good job from an execution standpoint. But then, just some of the attention to detail, had some breakdowns. Missed a free-throw box out that led to a three-point play. We got into some foul trouble and then we were not able to get stops down the stretch and we were not able to knock down shots. Credit to Texas Tech on the win.”

On LSU’s struggle to score after KJ Williams’ picked up his fourth foul… “We really struggled to score from that point forward. When he (KJ Williams) went out, and he didn’t have his more efficient day from two-point range, but I thought the flow of the offense was a lot better when he was on the floor. Again, you go back to the free-throw box out.

“They convert that into an and-one and then they (Texas Tech) hit two threes, and obviously we were trying to get Adam Miller as many looks as we could. I thought it was great to see him shoot the ball well from three today. They (Texas Tech) did a good job of switching out and they were denying him on a lot of his catches.

“Then, when they switched their five man onto him, we wanted to space the floor and have him drive it and that lead to some playmaking opportunities. At the end of the day, in the second half we were 32 percent from the field and 23 percent from three, and that’s just not good enough to win.”

LSU Guard Adam Miller

On the final eight minutes… “I don’t think it was nothing necessarily we saw, it is just sometimes hard to keep up, you know, when we kind of shoot ourselves in the foot there. The turnovers, and not boxing out, that was hard to keep up. When people get easy buckets. We get some tip passes, you know what I’m saying, they come over with the 50/50 ball, so it was kind of hard to keep up with those, on the offensive end. Things like that, it’s just kind of hard to keep up with that.”

On LSU playing faster… “Yeah, definitely. A big emphasis this week was spacing, getting out on spacing, definitely the last 12 seconds on the shot clock. So, we can have driving lanes, so we can make plays for each other, we can get threes, open threes, we can move the ball…

“Really just the whole game plan, like coming out the second half, I told everybody just come out like we came out against Arkansas, even though we were down, just keep pushing, have that attacking mentality. That’s kind of how we came out, and you just have to finish that way.”

On LSU’s efficiency and the flow of the offense … “Yeah, I think we did pretty good on offense. Like I said, turnovers were a problem tonight. But I think, like I said, the spacing was a little better. I think some of our passes, I think I threw a couple where somebody may have helped on me, I threw them a pass but it wasn’t on the seams.

“As a shooter, you kind of want the ball in the rhythm and on the seam so you can knock it down. So, I know I caught like two or three, it was offscreen so you don’t really want to shoot those, but then sometimes you feel like you have to shoot them. Yeah, we just tried to create more of those tonight and it was kind of hard, like I said, with the turnovers and missed box outs.”