News release from Texas A&M Athletics:
INDIANAPOLIS – Led by 16 points each by transfers Pharrel Payne and Zhuric Phelps, the No. 17 Texas A&M men’s basketball team tallied the highest ranked non-conference win of the Buzz Williams era with a 70-66 victory over the No. 11 Purdue Boilermakers on Saturday in the Indy Classic at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
The Aggies improved to 9-2 while tallying their sixth straight win over a power conference opponent and their third win over an Associated Press Top 25 team. It was the Aggies’ highest ranked non-conference win since beating No. 19 North Carolina in the 2018 NCAA Tournament.
Nursing a three-point lead entering the second half, the Aggies scored five quick points to go up 43-35, but Purdue answered with a 9-0 run that gave them a one-point advantage with 17:03 remaining in the game. That would be the last lead for the Boilermakers as Phelps stopped the run with a pair of free throws and the Aggies never trailed again.
Lockup defense and a pair of 7-0 and 10-0 runs by the Aggies kept last year’s national runners-up at bay as Texas A&M built a game-high 12 point lead with 4:44 remaining. Down the stretch, five clutch free throws by Manny Obaseki sustained the Aggies’s and Solomon Washington’s freebie with six seconds remaining put the game out of reach.
Phelps, a senior transfer from SMU, connected on 4-of-9 shots from the field and 6-of-7 from the line and filled box score with four assists, three rebounds and two steals. Payne, a transfer from Minnesota, came off the bench to log his season high in points and also had a game-high nine rebounds, including four off the offensive glass, and swatted a pair of shots.
Joining them in double figures was preseason All-American Wade Taylor IV, who scored 15 points with a trio of treys and dished out five assists while logging a season-high five steals.
A strength all season, Texas A&M earned a 34-23 advantage in rebounds and pulled down 14 offensive rebounds. Led by Payne, the bench was key to the victory as they combined to score 29 points. The Aggies earned 24 trips to the free throw and made 17 freebies. The Aggies shot 44% from the field and hit 41% from beyond the arc.
The Aggies took a narrow 38-35 lead into halftime with Taylor and Phelps leading the way offensively with 10 points each. Texas A&M hit 6-of-12 first-half 3-point tries and were 8-of-10 from the line to gain the three-point advantage. Payne came off the bench to chip in nine points and grab three rebounds to boost the Aggies.