Fresh out of the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas, No. 22 Texas A&M men’s basketball returned home on Tuesday to face a hungry Wake Forest squad in the Southeastern Conference-Atlantic Coast Conference Challenge, which pits the two conferences against each other in a series of matchups.
Needing a wake-up call on the free throw line, the Aggies showed they struggle the most when earning less than 20 attempts, going 0-2 on the season. Shooting 11-for-14 should have statistically been devastating for the group, but that streak was broken as the Aggies took the game, 57-44, following a great defensive second half.
Hard-fought defense arose out of the Demon Deacons’ lineup early in the game, forcing three turnovers to get out to an early 9-4 lead. However, bench points from graduate Nebraska transfer guard CJ Wilcher and made free throws by senior forward Andersson Garcia helped curb the Wake Forest lead to only three points.
The biggest issue in the first half was giving up the rock. A&M suffered from 14 turnovers in the first half alone. The sloppy ball-handling also amounted to 15 Demon Deacon points off turnovers, even though Wake Forest wrestled to overcome the poor 30% shooting on field goal attempts and 26% from beyond the arc.
“I thought our guys were tremendous in defending without fouling,” coach Buzz Williams said. “Least number of fouls we’ve given up in a Power Five game since [I’ve] been here [and] a lot of really good things.”
After a steal by senior SMU transfer G Zhuric Phelps turned into a full-court slam, the Aggies were rolling. Phelps picked the ball from the Demon Deacons before laying it off to Garcia, who danced his way to a successful layup and extra point attempt.
After a long made three from the specialist, graduate G Wade Taylor IV, the Maroon and White defense came alive, smothering Wake Forest senior G Hunter Sallis into giving up a turnover.
Living off the fires of their shooters, the Fightin’ Farmers increased the lead to 26-19 and capped off a 12-3 run after Taylor hit his second three and graduate G Hayden Hefner got a floater to land.
However, the lead diminished as the turnovers woes continued, eventually leading to a three-point edge over Wake Forest going into half, 29-26.
Heading into the second half, the Aggies started off on a great foot shooting-wise, airing 57% from three and 57.9% from the floor.
In the final 20 mminutes, turnovers became less frequent from A&M, leading to a shootout of threes between the Demon Deacons and the Maroon and White. Taylor went back-and-forth with Sallis and sophomore G Davin Cosby Jr., trading shots on his way to a 15-point finish.
Compared to the first half, the Fightin’ Farmers got off to an abysmal start on the floor, shooting just 3-for-19 in the first 10 minutes of the half. However, the defense saved the day as it forced Wake Forest to shoot 25.9% in the half, the lowest of any opponent so far this season.
“Statistically speaking, it’s the best game we’ve ever had here defensively,” Williams said. “And that’s not aesthetically pleasing unless you just love ball.”
Rolling into a half-court press, the Aggies began accumulating more fouls but also made it to the line more often, going 5-for-7 by the eight-minute mark.
Bench points were the key to success when shots weren’t falling, amounting to 20 of the Aggies’ 57 points.
“Just having that energy, like everybody’s on the same page,” Garcia said. “If you look at our bench, you look at the players on the court, everybody’s up on their feet [and] on the same page.”
With successful shots coming few and far between, a slam by graduate F Henry Coleman III off a fast break woke the 12th Man into a frenzy, 49-42 A&M.
“We’re definitely a hungry team,” Payne said. “We want to compete and we want to fight, so we come out swinging. We want to come out on top.”
A string of field goals by Coleman and Garcia helped extend the Aggie lead to a comfortable 12 points after Wake Forest continued to struggle shooting, finishing just 7-of-27 from the floor in the second half.
Despite not scoring a field goal in the last four and a half minutes, the game ended with a string of free throws, further cementing the lead as the Farmers finished on top, 57-44.
