Credit to Brad Marquardt | Assistant Athletics Director for Athletics Communications – 12thman.com
AUBURN, Ala. — A second-half surge by the Texas A&M men’s basketball team fell short as the Aggies dropped a hard-fought 66-55 decision to the No. 16 Auburn Tigers in front of a sellout crowd of 9,121 at Neville Arena.
With the loss, the Aggies drop to 9-6 and 0-2 in SEC play, while the Tiger improved to 13-2 and 2-0 while winning their eighth straight game.
Down at eight at the break, the resilient Aggies faced what was then their largest deficit of the game of nine points at 16:51 of the second but outscored the Tigers 18-7 from that point to grab their first lead since early in the first at 44-42 on Tyrece Radford’s 3-pointer at 12:29. The two teams battled back and forth before the Tigers regained control in the final two minutes and surged to the double-digit win.
Senior Henry Coleman III muscled his way to 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting and pulled down five rebounds to pace the Aggies’ offense. Graduate Tyrece Radford joined him in double figures with 14 points while grabbing seven rebounds and dishing out a team-high three assists. Senior Andersson Garcia came off the bench to continue his yeoman work on the glass with 13 rebounds, including six offensive caroms. The “Dominican Rodman” also matched his career high with four steals.
The Aggies responded to a poor rebounding night against LSU in the SEC opener to control the boards against the Tigers, earning a 10-rebound advantage overall 44-34, while reeling in 19 offensive caroms that resulted in 10 second-chance points. The Aggies shot 11 more field goal attempts than the Tigers.
Buoyed by a quick start by Hayden Hefner’s eight first-half points, the Aggies battled to a 30-22 deficit at the break. The Aggies were active on the boards with 10 offensive boards among 26 total rebounds in the first half, which led to five more field goal attempts than the Tigers and four second-chance points.
GAME NOTES:
GARCIA ON THE GLASS: Andersson Garcia had a game-high 13 rebounds which is the sixth game this season Garcia has had double-digit rebounds. This is the most rebounds Garcia has had in an SEC game since being at Texas A&M, his previous best was 10 against Arkansas on Feb. 15, 2023.
DOUBLE DIGIT TANDOM: Henry Coleman III and Tyrece Radford led the offensive efforts both scoring double-digit points for the Aggies. The 17 by Coleman are the most points he has scored in an SEC game since playing Arkansas on Jan. 31, 2023. Radford had 14 points marking the third straight in the double-digits.
CAPITALIZING ON THE CHARITY STRIPE: The Aggies went 16-of-19 from the free throw line, missing only one free throw in the second half for a season-best 84.2 percent from the charity stripe.
OWNING THE OFFENSIVE BOARDS: Texas A&M continues to lead the Division 1 in offensive rebounds with a total of 275 after racking up 19. This led to 10 second chance points for the Aggies and only one for the Tigers as they only had 8 offensive rebounds.