Credit to Brad Marquardt | Assistant Athletics Director for Athletics Communications – 12thman.com
BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION – The Texas A&M men’s basketball team dropped a 78-71 decision to the Arkansas Razorbacks on Tuesday at Reed Arena.
It was the third straight loss for the Aggies, who fell to 15-11 overall and 6-5 in SEC play, while the Razorbacks improved to 13-13 and 4-9.
Down four at halftime, the Aggies came out hot in the second half and quickly knotted the score up less than a minute into the second stanza. The Hogs responded and regained the lead and methodically built their advantage to 10 points with less than seven minutes remaining. Texas A&M made it a one-possession game on Wade Taylor IV’s jumper with 2:44 left, but UA’s Tramon Mark responded with a four-point play on the next possession and the closest the Aggies would get after that was five points.
The Aggies were led by junior transfer Jace Carter, who matched his season high with 14 points on 4-of-7 shooting, including a trio of treys, before fouling out with just over four minutes remaining. Senior Henry Coleman III scored 12 points for his third-straight double-digit scoring game and also pulled down six rebounds. Graduate Tyrece Radford scored 10 of his 12 points in the second half while also reeling in eight rebounds, and Taylor chipped in 11 points and matched his career high with nine assists. The SEC’s leading rebounder Andersson Garcia grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds, including seven offensive caroms, while sophomore Solomon Washington had a career-high 10 boards.
The Razorbacks took a four-point advantage into halftime 35-31 on the strength of a 10-0 scoring run beginning at the 9:00 mark. The Aggies had grabbed their biggest lead of the first half at 19-13 at 9:26 before going three minutes without a score. Coleman narrowed the deficit to four points with a bucket and a pair of free throws in the final minute.
GAME NOTES:
COLEMAN 1,000: With 12 points scored, Henry Coleman III now has over 1,000 total career points from his time at Duke and Texas A&M combined. Coleman is 10 points away from reaching the 1,000-point club at Texas A&M.
CARTER COLLECTING: Jace Carter matched his season-high 14 points as he led the team the second time this year in points scored. Carter went 4-of-7 from the field and 3-of-6 from beyond the arc.
CAREER NIGHT: Solomon Washington dominated on the boards to collect a career-high 10 rebounds while Wade Taylor IV had a game-high nine assists to match his career-high. With his nine assists, Taylor hit the 100-assist plateau for the second straight season.
TEXAS A&M IN DOUBLE FIGURES: For the third consecutive game the Aggies had four score in double figures for the longest streak this season in this statistic. Carter led with 14, Coleman and Tyrece Radford had 12 each and Taylor IV compiled 11.
Postgame Quotes:
Head Coach Buzz Williams
On needing to play better…
“At the end of the day I have to do better. We did some good things; we just didn’t do well enough. We don’t want to lose at home or on the road. We fouled way too much, and when we didn’t foul, we gave them way too many points at the rim. When they didn’t score at the rim, we didn’t finish enough defensive possessions with a rebound. We have to make a higher percentage of our free throws. We turned the ball over too much. It’s not one just one thing, it’s the accumulation of not quite good enough in too many categories. All of those things added up ends in a seven-point loss at home to Arkansas.”
On defensive struggles and fouling…
“It’s a thin line, and we didn’t meet the threshold we needed to meet. We had trouble guarding them at their place and in our place. We got into a lot of foul trouble. They do an incredible job at getting to the rim and getting fouled. They have multiple guys that can beat you off the bounce and we didn’t guard the ball well enough to get in rotation. Too many times at the rim we didn’t have a secondary defender and multiple times before it got to the secondary defender we fouled. We can’t afford three guys to foul out from a roster standpoint, but also because that means they are probably in the bonus both halves accumulating free throws. We want to be the team that’s accumulating free throws.”
Junior Guard Jace Carter
On moving forward…
“We just have to be better. We struggled to see the ball go in at the start of the second half and we have to get past that and do other things to help us win. We have to step up, we were all raised that way. We’ve faced a lot of controversy in our lives, a lot of back against the wall moments and we have to move forward. We’re not looking for any excuses, we just have to go grab it.”
Graduate Guard Eli Lawrence
On finishing…
“The energy was high all across the team. I feel like we played our game, shots just didn’t fall. We have to make free throws down the stretch, we definitely have to do that. We just have to be a little bit better. We’re good though, we already knew it was going to be hard. Coach is putting us in good positions to win games and it’s on us to get the job done.”