FORT WORTH, Texas – The Texas A&M men’s basketball team dropped an 86-71 neutral site matchup against Boise State in the Battleground 2k22 on Saturday at Dickies Arena.
The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for the Aggies as their record fell to 5-3, while Boise State improved to 6-2.
Riding hot shooting from the 3-point line the Broncos raced to a 37-28 halftime lead and then matched the Aggies score-for-score in the second half to tally the 15-point victory. The Broncos hit 7-of-14 from deep in the first half and connected on 44.0% for the game.
Sophomore guard Wade Taylor IV led the Aggies with 16 points and also dished out six assists to pace the offense. Also hitting double digits were junior Henry Coleman III with 12, graduate Tyrece Radford with 11 and graduate Dexter Dennis and freshman Solomon Washington with 10 each. Radford and junior Julius Marble led the Aggies with five rebounds.
The Aggies had advantages in points from turnovers, paint points, second chance points, fast break points and bench points, but they couldn’t cool the Bronco shooters.
The Aggies return to action with a 5 p.m. matchup against Oregon State at Reed Arena on Sunday, Dec. 11.
Texas A&M Men’s Basketball Postgame Quotes/Notes
Boise State 86, Texas A&M 71
Dickies Arena (Fort Worth, Texas)
Head coach Buzz Williams
On Boise State…
“We were playing from behind and when you give a team that level of confidence that early, there has to be something that reverses it. I think we were offensive sensitive wanting us to make threes, while they were making threes. Our offense is best when our defense fuels it and tonight defensively and statistically was the worst we’ve played. Taking the ball out of the net over and over again is not going to fuel your offense. If your mentality is too offensive sensitive, waiting on something good to happen offensively, it’s just against the compound. I think there were segments tonight where we were better. We’ve had a lot of growth over the last two weeks. Two weeks today was following the bad loss to Colorado and I think that we’ve made some steps. Boise State is a very good team, but they don’t beat themselves. They play with great poise. We are better. I love our players and I love our coaches, but we didn’t do enough to beat a quad one team. We have more opportunities to do so. Over the next few weeks we have to have more. This was better, but it wasn’t enough.”
On what steps the team needs to take moving forward…
“We need this to learn how to respond. To act as though it didn’t happen is foolish. Over the next two weeks we play two games so we have to continue to be transparent throughout practice, and we are. We have to respond. We can’t just wait until we play again and hope it works. Two weeks from today, we’re going to play a team that’s just as good numerically. They just play differently. Nothing against our fans that supported us today because we’re appreciative, but there will be more fans cheering us on today than there will be two weeks from today. It will be a completely different environment. You can argue that it could be the best environment that we will play in. That is just a precursor for what’s going to happen a month later. We were better in many respects than we were the last time, but this time when we got ahead, we didn’t hit back at the rate that you have to hit back with.”
RECORDS & SERIES NOTES
- The Maroon & White move to 1-3 in neutral site games and 5-3 overall.
- The Aggies drop to 0-1 against the Broncos in their first meeting in the all-time series.
TEAM NOTES
- Texas A&M had five players score in double figures for the first since the home opener on November 7 against ULM.
- The Maroon & White went 3-3 in dunks to add to its total of 18 dunks on the season.
- The Aggies had less turnovers than the Broncos and had single digit turnovers for the second consecutive game.
- Texas A&M had more steals than Boise State with an 8-4 margin.
- The Aggies scored 34 points in the paint.
- Texas A&M used the starting lineup combination of Dexter Dennis, Wade Taylor IV, Henry Coleman III, Tyrece Radford and Julius Marble for the second time this season (1-1).
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
Henry Coleman III
- Tallied his fourth consecutive game in double figures after registering 12 points.
- Hauled in four rebounds and had a steal.
Dexter Dennis
- Logged double-digit points for the third time this season after tallying 10 points.
- Tied his season-high in blocks with two.
Julius Marble
- Led the team with five rebounds tied with Tyrece Radford.
Manny Obaseki
- Went 4-for-6 from the field to finish with eight points in 16 minutes of action.
Tyrece Radford
- Finished in double figures for the fourth time this season after recording 11 points.
- Hauled in a team-leading five rebounds.
- Dished out three assists and registered two steals.
Wade Taylor IV
- Recorded his fourth consecutive game in double figures after finishing with 16 points.
- Led the team in points for the third time this season and seventh of his career.
- Led the team in assists for the fourth time this season and 16th of his career after dishing out six assists.
- Registered a team-leading three 3-pointers.
Solomon Washington
- Slammed in his first dunk of his career.
- Scored 10 of A&M’s 19 bench points to record double figures for the second time this season.
- Logged a season-high 20 minutes off the bench.