Matt McMahon recaps LSU's thrilling win over Wake Forest
LSU head coach Matt McMahon and forward Will Baker spoke with the media after Sunday’s 86-80 win over Wake Forest in overtime. Here’s what the pair had to say with reporters.
The Tigers return home to face North Florida Friday at 7 p.m. in the Maravich Center. Tickets are available at LSUTix.net.
On the hard-fought LSU victory...
“I was really proud of our players. I thought we showed resiliency. In the first half, I thought the first team to get a stop would win the game. I hadn’t seen anything like the first 10 minutes in a long time. Then we struggled some offensively in the second half. Felt like we had the game won a couple of times, you watch a lot of basketball usually when you don’t close it out and go to overtime, you lose all that momentum and the other team finds a way to win. But I thought it really speaks to the character and toughness of our group. Really made some big-time plays in the overtime period to find a way to win the game.”
On the mentality and fight of the LSU team...
“There was obviously some disappointment there, we didn’t close out our free throws to end the game. I thought Jalen Reed had a beautiful drive there at the buzzer to win it and it just didn’t go our way. They (Wake Forest) scored their second possession of overtime to go down two, the rest of the overtime period we held them 2-of-10 from the floor, 0-of-5 from three, which had hurt us in the first half and finally made those big plays when we needed them down the stretch.”
On the play of Will Baker...
“They (Wake Forest) were playing him single coverage, I thought our spacing was really good offensively, he (Will Baker) was very patient getting to his spots. I thought Jordan Wright set the tone defensively to start the game with a couple of steals. We did a poor job defending the three and that got them back into the game in the first half. Again, credit to Will Baker, you saw them try to take him away but he made some big defensive stops for us and had a huge assist to Jalen Reed for a big basket there late.”
WILL BAKER
On LSU getting to the offensive glass...
“That was an emphasis for sure going into the game. Just watching the film and seeing how we could attack the offensive glass and we were able to get a lot of second-chance looks and that helped us out a lot.”
On his mindset...
I try to keep the mindset of just staying in attack mode and so that was an emphasis for me going into the game. My teammates trust me and look for me down low and I got a lot of good looks.”
Editor’s Note: LSU press release.