COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — Freshman Tyler Davismatched his season high with 18 points on 8-of-9 shooting and No. 20 Texas A&M beat Cal Poly 82-63 on Tuesday night.
The Aggies (10-2) led by as many as 22 points, with the Mustangs never getting closer than nine points in the second half.
Senior Joel Awich, who entered the game leading Cal Poly (6-7) in scoring at 11.7 points per game, was helped off the court with 14 minutes remaining in the game, unable to put weight on his left ankle. He was put in a walking boot on the bench and did not return.
Danuel House, A&M’s leading scorer this season, finished with 12 points on 5-of-14 shooting from the field. He was just 2 of 10 from the free throw line.
Cal Poly entered the game committing a Big West-leading 10.4 turnovers per game, but the Mustangs committed 14 on Tuesday, 11 in the first half, which the Aggies converted to 21 points. The Mustangs had their lowest first-half scoring since Dec. 14 as they trailed 44-29 after 20 minutes.
Senior guard Reese Morgan led Cal Poly with 16 points and fellow senior Brian Bennett had 13, six within the final 3 minutes of the first half.
Postgame Notes
RECORDS & SERIES NOTES
? Texas A&M improved to 10-2 on the season and 8-0 inside Reed Arena with an 82-63 win over Cal Poly Tuesday night in College Station … The Aggies are now 134-13 (.912) all-time inside the facility against non-conference competition.
? The meeting was the first between the schools on the hardwood.
TEAM NOTES
? Balanced scoring saw seven A&M players tally eight or more points in the contest with four players in double-digit scoring for the first time since a win over Texas on Nov. 25.
? Texas A&M owned a 43-34 edge in rebounding, including 16 boards on the offensive glass.
? The Aggies also forced 13 Cal Poly turnovers leading to a 21-5 advantage in points off turnovers and a 10-0 lead in fast break points.
? The Aggies took control of the contest with a 13-0 run midway through the opening period before the home squad carried a 44-29 lead into the intermission.
? Texas A&M used the starting lineup combination of Anthony Collins, Alex Caruso, Danuel House, Jalen Jones and Tyler Davis for the second time this season (2-0).
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
? Senior Alex Caruso tied the school record for career steals in the contest, collecting two against the Mustangs to give him 228 for his four-year career … He shares the top spot in program history with David Edwards, who had 228 take-aways from 1991-94.
? Caruso also dished out a game-high six assists against only one turnover on the night … The College Station native has 27 assists and just four turnovers in his last four games.
? Freshman Tyler Davis enjoyed a big night, tying a season-high with 18 points on 8-of-9 shooting from the floor to go along with a game-high eight rebounds … Davis has converted 20 of his last 21 field goal attempts dating back to Dec. 5th‘s contest at Arizona State and is shooting 79.4 percent for the season.
? Texas A&M head coach Billy Kennedy improved to 81-63 in his fifth season at Texas A&M and 292-242 in 18 seasons as head coach.
UP NEXT
? The Aggies begin SEC play by hosting Arkansas inside Reed Arena on Jan. 2 … The contest will tip-off at 3:30 p.m. and be televised by SEC Network.
Postgame Quotes
TEXAS A&M HEAD COACH BILLY KENNEDY
Opening Statement…
“I was hoping that we wouldn’t have some holiday break blues with our team because we’ve practiced well all week. I thought our guys came back ready but the start of the game, for whatever reason, we didn’t start off as sharp as we needed to but we got it going, we just weren’t very consistent today. Cal Poly made some shots and we missed some free throws that we’ve been making all week. Our guys have shot the free throws well and I know we’ll make them, hopefully, next game because these guys work at it.”
On Tyler Davis‘ consistency…
“He’s impressive, 18 points, eight rebounds in 24 minutes, and I thought we got him the ball but we can get him the ball more.”
On overall game performance…
“I think it was a C, a C plus, because if I was giving us a grade I thought all week we prepared well, we had good practices which we had seven days. Somebody said we played three games in 22 days. It’s hard to really get in the rhythm of playing games and now getting into conference play, I hope we can build a good rhythm and get more consistent in our play.”
ANTHONY COLLINS, TEXAS A&M SENIOR GUARD
On putting win in perspective…
“We were just happy to come out with a win, now with some type of momentum going into the conference play.”
On coming back from the holidays…
“Coach gave us some time off to go be with our family for a little bit and then when we came back, we did some two-a-days, just focus back on the things that helped us be successful, going hard in practice and basically that and coming out today and taking care of business.”
TYLER DAVIS, TEXAS A&M FRESHMAN CENTER
On scoring…
“I’m pretty confident right now but my teammates are really getting me in the right spots, putting me in the right situation to score the ball so they keep putting me in the right spots that I get the confidence in me to put the ball in the basket.”
On getting into conference play…
“I think my teammates just found me in the right spots. I was able to knock down a couple shots and a couple went in; I just got a little flow and went with it.”
CAL POLY HEAD COACH JOE CALLERO
Opening Statement…
“We lost a day of practice and we got in here late yesterday and told our guys what we have to do is wake up right away. A&M was perfectly ready and looked sharp and ready to go. We’re a team that’s been historically excellent at taking care of the basketball. We had ten turnovers in the first ten or eleven minutes. At one point in time A&M had 21 shot attempts to our seven, and I think that’s great credit to their execution. I think they’re one of the best half court execution teams that we’ve played. Hats off to the physicality of (their) interior players, I thought that was excellent, the ability to bump and grind and get second chance points, and the discipline to stay with it.”
On struggling out of the gate…
“It certainly was a concerted effort. I thought the first ten minutes A&M deserves credit for pushing us out of position. They denied the reversal a few times, they had us well scouted, well prepared for. We have to be able to make a quicker adjustment to that. I thought that the size of A&M really intimidated our drives in the first eight to ten minutes.”
“I think Billy (Kennedy) has done a great job and they’ve got a really good team. We got some really good learning points from this game.”
On playing quality opponents…
“It’s hard to overcome a 19-point deficit against a top-20 team on their home court. You have to keep it within striking distance. You have to just keep on playing and chopping wood, and make a shot here and there. The other shots are little more difficult to make for your opponent. Now, we smell the upset. The game, and the momentum, and the feel of the game would change once you get that to single digits. We’ve been in big venues, we’ve played top teams over and over. We feel like we can mess around with the top-40 (RPI) teams and we play a lot of them.”
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics