Story courtesy of Evan Roberts, Texas A&M Athletics Communications
BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — Tyrece Radford recorded 14 points and 14 rebounds to lift Texas A&M to a 74-62 win over Alcorn State in the NIT first round on Tuesday night.
Wade Taylor IV and Hassan Diarra each had 12 points for Texas A&M (24-12). Quenton Jackson had 10 points.
Dominic Brewton scored a season-high 20 points for the Braves (17-17). Lenell Henry added 16 points and 10 rebounds, and Oddyst Walker had 10 points.
Texas A&M Men’s Basketball Postgame Notes
National Invitation Tournament – First Round
Texas A&M 74, Alcorn State 62
Reed Arena (Bryan-College Station, Texas)
RECORDS & SERIES NOTES
No. 1 Texas A&M defeated No. 8 Alcorn State, 74-62, Tuesday night inside Reed Arena in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament.
Texas A&M improves to 24-12 overall, the most wins by an A&M team since the 2015-16 squad recorded 28 victories.
The Maroon & White have won eight of their last nine games, with their only defeat coming in the Southeastern Conference Tournament Championship against No. 9 Tennessee.
The Aggies have played five games in the last six days and have gone 4-1 in that span. Five games in six days is a Texas A&M program record.
A&M climbs to 8-7 overall in the NIT and advances to the second round of the tournament for the third-consecutive time.
The Aggies are 4-2 in NIT games played in Bryan-College Station.
Buzz Williams sits one win away from cracking the 300-win mark in his collegiate coaching career. Williams is now 299-191 all-time.
The Aggies improve to 4-0 in the all-time series with Alcorn State, winning the first meeting of the two programs since 2011.
TEAM NOTES
Manny Obaseki’s layup at the 19:15 mark of the second half sparked a 10-0 run resulting in a 37-30 Aggie lead.
A layup by Tyrece Radford initiated an 11-2 Aggie run beginning at the 8:08 mark of the second half culminating in a 65-46 advantage.
The Maroon & White matched their season high in free throws made, going 26-of-28 at the line. A&M last sunk 26 free throws against Florida in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament last week.
Texas A&M forced 16 turnovers and surrendered 13. A&M is 20-6 this season when it wins the turnover battle.
The Aggies converted 21 points from Braves turnovers
A&M capitalized off the bench, outscoring Alcorn State by a 28-7 margin. The Maroon & White are now 19-8 when outscoring their opponents off the pine.
Texas A&M utilized a starting lineup of Quenton Jackson, Wade Taylor IV, Henry Coleman III, Tyrece Radford and Manny Obaseki for the ninth time (8-1).
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
Tyrece Radford set a career high with 14 rebounds and finished as the game-high rebounder. His previous career-best mark of 13 boards was set on Nov. 28, 2020, against Villanova during his tenure at Virginia Tech. Radford was the first Aggie to have at least 14 rebounds in a game since Josh Nebo collected 15 against Texas Southern on Dec. 30, 2019.
Radford finished as the Aggies leading scorer with 14 points on 50% shooting from the floor. Radford has scored in double figures in each of the last 10 games. The Baton Rouge, Louisiana, native secured his first double-double since arriving at Texas A&M and the fifth of his collegiate career.
Radford swiped a season high-tying three steals. The junior has recorded three steals in five games this season, most recently at Ole Miss on Feb. 26.
Wade Taylor IV scored in double figures for the 13th time in his career, logging 12 points.
Quenton Jackson notched 10 points, his 28th double-digit scoring game this season. Jackson has booked 10-or-more points in 17 of his last 18 games.
Hassan Diarra recorded his 10th double-digit scoring game with 12 points, bolstered by an 8-for-8 performance at the free-throw line. Diarra has logged double figures in three of the last five games.
UP NEXT
Texas A&M men’s basketball continues its run in the National Invitation Tournament as it hosts No. 5 Oregon Ducks inside Reed Arena on either Saturday, March 19 or Sunday, March 20.
POSTGAME QUOTES
TEXAS A&M QUOTES
Head Coach Buzz Williams
Opening statement…
“When you are completely absorbed in a worthy cause, you give it all of your time, energy and emotion. The sacrifice required prevents you from being aware of anything other than the cause you are devoted to. From Valentine’s Day to Sunday afternoon, everyone in our program, and the families they represent, gave all they had. And in a way that I have never witnessed, personally or professionally, gave their absolute best on a daily basis. And in truth, as the odds continued to grow against us, found ways to get better and embrace the task at hand on that particular day. During that time, we won five of our last six to finish the regular season and won three of our last four games last week while advancing to the championship game of the conference tournament. That ending propelled us to a total of 12 SEC wins for the season. We found out Sunday afternoon that those numbers weren’t good enough to be invited as an at-large team. We were and are completely devastated and heartbroken. ‘Sad’ is the wrong word because it doesn’t completely express the totality of our emotions. Since our return late Sunday night, I have spent all of my waking hours trying to better understand the data on how those 12 SEC-competition-only wins weren’t enough. While knowing that the four teams in our league that won more than that were all a 4-seed or higher. As I began to do research, the first thing I wanted to learn was how members were selected to the committee and how the section of those members even worked. In other words, what committee selected the committee? I wanted to research who was on the committee for this year’s tournament, their career paths, and how they were appointed to their position on the committee, so that once they were appointed, what data is it that they study. When, where, and how often do they meet? And when they meet, what are the topics of discussion, and during it all, what metrics do they look at, and what is most important? I wanted to make sure that I studied it all with the lens that they do so that I could better understand how what we did this season wasn’t enough. I wanted this understanding so I could have an explanation for our players, their parents, and coaches, and be accountable in my relationship to each of them. My phone and TV have been off since we landed late Sunday night, so I’m oblivious to whatever has been said. But similar to how the committee is supposedly sequestered, I wanted to make sure my research was thorough, and I didn’t have the opinions of others’ diluting the information I was gathering. After studying this non-stop for the past two days and looking at it from every vantage point, it defies logic that we are not in the NCAA Tournament. Despite repeated pleas, I have only been given generalities by those above me – not data specific evidence – on why we weren’t invited. Without logical reasoning behind the decision, while knowing I still must explain this to our guys and their families, it has caused me to lose all respect and faith in the system, and those that are in it. What has transpired is wrong. I am so sad for all of the young men in our program, especially those who decided to stay at Texas A&M with their COVID year of eligibility. The process is obviously flawed, and it is apparent that there is way more included that is unseen and unknown in the selection of the 36 at-large teams than what the public is made aware of. Until there is complete transparency and accountability, the system will stay broken, and this will continue to happen. Like many other things I have seen with the NCAA in my career, especially in my tenure here, allowing a personal bias to impact the process should not be allowed. Our players and staff earned the right to play in the greatest tournament in the world, and it disgusts me in a way I can’t articulate that the system, and the adults in it, prohibited that from happening, because several in our program will never have that opportunity again. Despite how disenchanted I have become with all of this I will always stand up for our players and the families they represent. Regardless of the opinion of anyone, that is the least that I can do. Our focus is now on what we can control.”
On his thoughts on the first half…
“We left for Tampa last Tuesday. We worked here on Tuesday and then left. We didn’t get to Tampa until east coast time on Tuesday evening. So, in that sense, seven days later and all that has transpired, it’s been a lot. I’ve never coached in any capacity, four games in four days, particularly with what we thought was at stake. Then we stayed around waiting to determine what was going to transpire, so we didn’t get home until midnight on Sunday night. Then we were off yesterday. Everyone on team bus one came into my office when we got back to campus. I told them, this was my decision, I didn’t ask an assistant that I don’t think we need to do anything tomorrow [Monday]. I just didn’t think they could absorb anything else; physically, mentally, emotionally. The training room was open for six hours. We had a brief shootaround today with the coaches walking through what we thought we would anticipate today. I talked to them, and not being a prophet, but being their cheerleader, it’s a lot. Alcorn State went 14-4 and played nine guarantee games, so they’re accustomed to playing on the road against a Power-5 team. I did not think that we played great in the first half. I thought Alcorn State was really good on the glass and we were just there. We were better in the second half, but we were for sure not hitting on all cylinders at any point. We’ll take off tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow at some point we find out when we play again. Once we find that out, we’ll try to make a decision in hopes that we can get recalibrated because we won’t be able to play the way we did tonight.”
Junior guard Tyrece Radford
On getting things going in the first half…
“I think we are used to that. We go through Boot Camp and individuals. We know the type of push and drive we need to push through and finish games off.”
Fifth-Year guard Quenton Jackson
On getting another chance to play at home in front of the 12th Man…
“It’s a blessing and you can’t take it for granted. There’s a lot of teams; there’s a lot of basketball players that wish they had another chance and another game. Unfortunately, not everyone does, so you can’t take it for granted. We came out slow tonight, but we picked it up towards the end. We gave away the first half for sure, but there’s no more lackadaisical from now on.”
On getting to play postseason basketball…
“It’s still an opportunity in my eyes. You have to control what you can control. It’s still an opportunity so we have to take advantage of this.”
ALCORN STATE QUOTES
Head Coach Landon Bussie
On the team’s overall performance…
“I think we did a good job competing against a very good, well-coached team. They’ve played great basketball and made a run in the SEC Tournament, so we just wanted to get out there and compete. They were the better and more physical team tonight. They got the opportunity, and they deserve to go to the next round.”
On energy coming into the game…
“We were tired, we had an eight-hour bus ride down here yesterday turning around from Birmingham, but at this point in time, everybody’s tired. You’re not going to find one team that’s not dealing with injuries or a single team that’s not tired. You have to find something in the tank, something to dig out. We came out with a little more energy, but I think [Texas A&M] had more power, will and their physicality was overwhelming throughout the game.”
On what the Braves did well tonight…
“Defend – what we focus on day in and day out. Our main focus and what we try to keep in mind in our scouting reports is to keep them out of transition and keep them off the glass. In the second half, [A&M] started speeding up and forced us into a lot of turnovers, so we didn’t do a good job of following the scouting report in the second half. But, in the first half we were very disciplined. They didn’t turn us over much and we limited their shot attempts. We just told them to go out and be physical and make adjustments at halftime.”
On competing against a high-caliber team like Texas A&M…
“I think it says a lot in that we can be competitive. We had a really tough non-conference schedule. We played Gonzaga, Baylor, University of Houston, Oklahoma and some more of the best teams in the country. We play those games so we can be competitive in games like this and can be confident going up against teams like this. I think we did a good job just getting out there and competing.”