News release from Texas A&M Athletics:
BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION – The No. 10 Aggies dropped a narrow 94-88 decision to the No. 5 Alabama Crimson Tide in the first-ever men’s basketball top 10 matchup in Aggieland in front of a sellout crowd of 12,997 on Saturday at Reed Arena.
The loss ended a nine-game winning streak and dropped the Aggies’ season record to 13-3 overall and 2-1 in SEC play, while the Tide improved to 14-2 and 3-0.
The loss ended a nine-game winning streak and dropped the Aggies’ season record to 13-3 overall and 2-1 in SEC play, while the Tide improved to 14-2 and 3-0.
Playing without leading scorer Wade Taylor IV for the second straight game, the Aggies trailed by as many as 15 points in the second half but used a furious rally to get within three points twice after the final media timeout. Powering the comeback were Zhuric Phelps, Pharrel Payne and Hayden Hefner, who combined for 23 points down the stretch.
Phelps was the team’s leading scorer for a second straight game as he scored 24 points while pulling down nine rebounds and dishing out a trio of assists. Payne contributed a career-high 23 points and matched his season high with nine rebounds, including six off the offensive glass. He earned 15 free throw attempts and made 11 from the line. Henry Coleman III logged his 16th career double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds, including five offensive boards. Hayden Hefner chipped in 16 points with five rebounds in a career-high 28 minutes of action.
The Aggies had big numbers on the glass with 46 total rebounds and 23 offensive boards, but were bested by the Crimson Tide with opponent season highs of 54 and 24. Texas A&M suffered just eight turnovers, while forcing 15 Tide miscues. The Aggies earned a season-high 48 free throw attempts and scored 28 points from the stripe.
Postgame Quotes
Head Coach Buzz Williams
On the play of Hayden Hefner as of late….
“I do think throughout the season, if you really looked at his numbers in the 11 major games, including tonight, it would be the best. His game is probably not [statistical] in regards to how he impacts us. I do think he’s playing with a high level of confidence. I don’t think his stats necessarily speak to us in those games that he’s been superlative. From an analytical standpoint, if you look at our best three-man groups, our best four-man groups, our best five-man groups, even though statistically you wouldn’t think he would be in that mix, he is, and I think a lot of that is the confidence that he plays with. I think he does a lot of things that are not statistically evident, not just offensively but defensively as well.”
On being able to move forward after a tough loss to a top five team… “I think every coach would say that when the margin in this league is as thin as it is, you have to purge or cleanse whether the result was good or whether the result was bad. From a non-emotional standpoint, you have to figure out how you can diagnose what to learn, but in a quick turnaround, what can you learn that applies to the next game? We try to purge good or bad, but then we try to only take translatable learning information to the next game and the things that don’t translate, we kind of sprinkle in when we have more than one day of work prior to the game.”
Henry Coleman III
On how the team will react to this loss when preparing for Kentucky’s game
“We have a long season, we don’t hang our heads on anything. We have work to do tomorrow, and we’re prepared for it. Guys will watch film tonight to get ready to play in Lexington on Tuesday.”
Hayden Hefner
On the impact of the comeback at Oklahoma on today’s game
“It helped a little bit because we learned that lesson from not giving up and we knew we had this home crowd here, the home advantage. We were using that, but really the ball didn’t fall our way, we missed too many free throws. They took our recipe and performed it better. Offensively they just rebounded better than us.”