COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP)–Savion Flagg scored 22 points as Texas A&M started the Buzz Williams era with a 77-63 victory over Northwestern State on Wednesday night.
Flagg, a junior forward and the team’s top returning player, made 9 of 11 shots from the field in Texas A&M’s opener.
The Aggies shot 56 percent (28 of 50) from the floor, compared to 34 percent (25 of 73) by the Demons. A&M also overwhelmed NSU (1-1) inside, holding a 44-20 advantage in points in the paint.
Nikos Chougkaz led the Demons with 12 points. Quenton Jackson scored 13 points for the Aggies and Jay Jay Chandler added 11 for A&M. The teams were about even in turnovers, with the Aggies committing 14 and the Demons committing 13. Chandler had a game-high five of A&M’s 14 turnovers.
Williams, a native Texan, came to Texas A&M from Virginia Tech, where he led the Hokies to a school-record three consecutive NCAA Tournaments in his five seasons there.
RECORDS & SERIES NOTES
- Texas A&M opened the 2019-20 season with a 77-63 victory over Northwestern State Wednesday night at Reed Arena.
- The victory marked the 19th consecutive season-opening win for the Aggies.
- The Aggies all-time record moves to 9-2 against Northwestern State with all 11 matches being played in College Station.
TEAM NOTES
- Texas A&M dominated Northwestern State down low, outscoring the Demons 44-20 in the paint.
- The Aggies trailed 12-10 at the 12:24 mark but took the lead following a 23-4 run which was sparked by a Quenton Jackson and-one. During the run, the Aggies manufactured six turnovers while forcing 10 missed field goals over the 8:40 span.
- Texas A&M took a 38-26 advantage into the locker room after shooting 14-for-26 (53.8%) from the floor as Savion Flagg led the team with 13 points.
- Texas A&M forced the Demons to shoot 34.2%(25-for-73) from the floor, marking the lowest opponent field goal percentage since Kansas State’s 32.8% (20-for-61) on Jan. 6, 2019.
- Texas A&M used the starting lineup combination of Wendell Mitchell, Quenton Jackson, Jay Jay Chandler, Savion Flagg and Emanuel Miller.
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
- Junior Savion Flagg tied his career-high in blocks with three, which was set last season against Northwestern State on Dec. 3, finishing with 22 points, seven rebounds, five assists, and one steal.
- Junior Jay Jay Chandler scored 11 points, marking his 17th-career game with 10-or-more points.
- Freshman Jonathan Aku tallied seven rebounds, five points, and one block in his collegiate debut.
- Junior Quenton Jackson finished the night with 13 points and 4 rebounds.
- A total of five Aggies made their debut in the opener, including Jonathan Aku, Andre Gordon, Yavuz Gultekin, Quenton Jackson and Emanuel Miller.
UP NEXT
- The Aggies remain in the friendly confines of Reed Arena Monday evening at 7 p.m., taking on ULM.
Texas A&M Quotes
Head Coach Buzz Williams
On the importance of plays coming out of timeouts…
“Our guys have picked up on the fact that out-of-timeout plays are important. Tonight, we had 10 possessions of offense after a timeout, and we performed very well in those. Defensively, out of a timeout, we had 11 possessions and didn’t perform as well. Our guys understand the importance behind performing well out of timeouts, and that’s a big emphasis in our special teams.”
On managing the team’s focus in the second half…
“In simplest terms I think we just exhaled. We were excited. We were playing well and excited that we were ahead, so we emotionally let off what we needed to do right. We just need to prevent those types of things in the future. It doesn’t matter what part of the game it happens.”
On positive takeaways from tonight’s win…
“There were stretches of the game tonight where we played very well. One of our best stretches of the night was in the first half, where we just didn’t turn the ball over. In that stretch, we had four assists. We finished defensive possessions with defensive rebounds. We had multiple opportunities to get out in transition and finish in advantage-disadvantage situations. Those were some things I really liked.”
On earning his first win at Texas A&M…
“I’m thankful for sure. I mean, I love coach Mac (Northwestern State Head Coach Mike McConathy). He may be the best human being I’ve ever known that’s a college coach. I just have the utmost respect for who he is, how he goes about things as a person, and as a coach. It was unique playing against him tonight. I think I went up against him when I was at New Orleans. My seventh game as a head coach I went up against him. They beat us 71-67 that night, and they ran that same zone that they played this evening. It was the same zone defense they used when I worked with Coach Mac. So, it was strange in that regard, but I’m definitely glad that we won.”
Junior Guard/Forward Savion Flagg
On the Aggies’ defense…
“I was pretty pleased with us. I think we made some strides in our scheme that we try. Everybody was pretty much locked into what we’re trying to do. I’m pretty excited in the way we’re going with it.”
On the ally-oop to start a run…
“We started off kind of slow. I feel like Johnathan Aku coming in and getting a board on his first play in a college game so that Chuck could get it out for an easy bucket in transition really got everybody going.”
Junior Guard Jay Jay Chandler
On the teams direction going forward…
“We’re headed in the right direction. We found our mistakes and fixed them. We’re going to head into practice tomorrow, fix the mistakes that we had today and just keep improving our numbers.”
On double-digit win in Buzz’ first game at the helm of A&M…
“It starts us off well. We just want to keep pushing it. I know Coach is excited that we got a double-digit win in his first game here. So he’s going to come at us hard to keep pushing so that we keep getting more and adding on.”
Northwestern State Quotes
Head Coach Mike McConathy
On coaching against Buzz Williams…
“He’ll do a great job. He works hard. Being there with me, he worked hard, instrumental and doing all the things that we needed to do to win. When I came in 21 years ago in the spring to be able to get our program headed in the right direction, he was 27 years old. He came in, worked hard and he got after it. We got our name out there and did some good things. We got a couple transfers he was able to bring in. He works hard. He’s passionate. He cares about his kids. He cares about his family. He cares about Texas A&M. Wherever he’s at, he’s going to treat it like it’s his own university. That speaks volumes about people, especially today.”
On what he said to Coach Williams after the game…
“I just told him, ‘sorry that we didn’t give you any more than we gave you.’ You know, it’s just one of those things. You play in the four games in early seasons and I go back to when he and I were coaching together. We had a game similar in a way sort of similar to this, where it kind of got out and things didn’t go our way when we were coaching. We felt like we should have done certain things well tonight. He will do a great job, because he will get guys to believe and doing more than they possibly can. You say well that doesn’t happen at the highest level. I believe it does happen. We’re all human beings, and we all need somebody coaching us, driving us and pushing us. He’ll do a great job with that.”
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics