LSU opens McMahon era by defeating Kansas City, 74-63

BATON ROUGE – The LSU Tigers and the Matt McMahon era got off to a positive start with a 74-63 win over Kansas City Wednesday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

LSU (1-0) will be back in action Saturday at 5 p.m. at the PMAC against Arkansas State. Tickets are available at the LSU Athletics Ticket Office and online at LSUTix.net.

The Tigers never trailed in the contest and led for 38:56 of the game, building a 41-34 halftime advantage on a long three-pointer by Justice Hill out of a time out with 3.4 seconds to play. LSU would lead by as much as 16 in the second half, 63-47, with 12:03 to play.

The Roos (0-2) would cut the game down to five points, 66-61, thanks to a 7-0 run with 5:37 left, but LSU would only allow Kansas City two points the rest of the way for the final margin.

Coach McMahon, with his family and lots of friends in attendance, would have to play 11 players in the first half as the Tigers got in some early foul trouble and those 11 were used throughout the game in different combinations.

KJ Williams, the OVC Player of the Year a season ago at Murray State, had his first LSU double double with 13 points and 14 rebounds, including six offensive rebounds. He also recorded three blocks. The Tigers leading scorer was Adam Miller, playing his first counting game since March of 2021, with 18 points.

Miller, who missed the entire 2021-22 season because of an ACL injury in the preseason, played 34 minutes and hit four three-pointers and had three rebounds and two assists.

Justice “Juice” Hill, who also transferred in from Murray State, had a good night with 13 points, seven assists and four steals to go with a plus-15 plus-minus rating.

Kansas City was led by Shemarri Allen with 19 points, with RayQuawndis Mitchell added 15.

LSU shot a consistent 42.1 percent over all for the night (24-of-57), with eight three-point makes. LSU was 18-of-26 at the free throw line. LSU shot 42.9 percent in the first half and 41.4 percent in the second half. LSU had 16 total assists off of 24 made field goals.

LSU held the Roos to 32.8 percent for the game (19-of-58) and just 4-of-25 from the arc. KC was 21-of-27 at the free throw line.

The Tigers outrebounded Kansas City, 45-38.

Saturday’s contest will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network and streamed on SECN+. It will be the second of three game at home to open the 2022-23 men’s basketball season.

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Head Coach Matt McMahon Post-Game Quotes
November 9, 2022
LSU 74, Kansas City 63

Opening statement…
“Excited to get a win. Sure beats losing. Obviously would’ve liked to have played better, but as we know, first time this group is playing together in this setting and we’re going to be a work in progress there. Overall, a lot of positives to take away and certainly plenty to work on tomorrow and Friday in preparation for Saturday’s next opportunity.”

On having a blueprint from tonight’s game of what to improve on…
“I certainly think so. You look at the game, and credit to UMKC, with their zone and physicality, which I felt bothered us. For us, a lot of positives to take away, look at the field goal percentage defense, three-point defense is always an important stat to us, hold them to four-of-25. But, the corrections there in the first half, we got hurt on the offensive glass, we put them on the free-throw line too often, and the last 10 minutes of the game, we really made some eye-opening poor decisions that led to turnovers and allowed them to hang around those final eight minutes.”

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LSU vs. Kansas City
November 9, 2022
Marvin Menzies – Kansas City Head Coach Quotes

Overall Thoughts of The Game…
“I was proud of the guys competing. I thought that they improved drastically from the last game, which is what you want. You want improvement. I wish we would have been fully equipped to see if we could have stolen one on the road with all our guys available, but it is what it is. That is just basketball and what happens during the season. Now we will use this trip, we have one day in between, and go travel to play another strong team as a precursor for what conference will look like. We had eight guys that played their first basketball game just a few days ago and the same eight have their first road-trip experience. This is what rebuilding a program is all about. I love these kids and they are getting better and that is all you can ask for, to have a championship mentality. Preparation was a lot better; they were way more locked in today. We ran 27 offensive plays and changed defenses I do not know how many times, and we were able to execute the majority of them. Veteran teams do that, and we are only two games in, so hopefully we will be able to tweak out one out of all these guaranteed games and put ourselves in a position to do some special things. It is all about steady improvement and that is what we did tonight.”

On adjusting to playing in a different environment…
“We had two lengthy conversations about trust and poise, and we defined them. We talked about what it takes to clear their heads, take their cell phones, get off social media, to focus on what is important, the thing that they love, which is playing this game. If that is what you really love, then you must be able to quiet the noise and calm the storm that is going around you whether it is families, or girlfriends, or even studying. You have to put it to bed for a minute, we have study hall tomorrow while we are travelling to the airport, so that is when you concentrate on that stuff. We learned a lot of lessons, good lessons.”