The Texas A&M mens basketball team scored a win Monday night at Reed Arena as the Aggies defeated the Northwestern State Demons 78-65 in front of an attendance of 4,289.
The Aggies used a strong defensive effort to pull away from the Demons in what was a scrappy first half.
Coming off the Holiday break we did a really good job defensively in both halves, head coach Billy Kennedy said. We have a lot of respect for Northwestern and the way they played tonight.
In the first half the Aggies were running up and down the court as the defense caused nine Northwestern turnovers and allowed the Aggies to get transition buckets. In what has become a point of emphasis for coach Kennedy, the Aggies started to make a presence in the paint outscoring Northwestern State 18-4 in the first half. The Aggies had key three point shots made by senior guard Elston Turner as he got scoring help from junior transfer Fabyon Harris and senior forward Ray Turner all who chipped in with eight points each.
In the first half, we had some foul trouble but our guys spotted well throughout the game, Kennedy said.
In the second half, the Aggies clamped down on defense as they held Northwestern State to (BLANK) points. The story of the second half continued to be the presence of the interior players and guard JMychal Reese who scored 12 of his 15 points in the second half.
He made some very good decisions in the second half, Kennedy said about the performance of Reese.
The Aggies continued to take selective shots by driving to the basket and shot and effective 56 percent .A&M used a key 11-4 run to open up the game and would not look back as the Aggies held the Demons to a season low 32 percent on 20 for 62 shooting including a 7-25 from beyond the arc for 28 percent.
A&M now holds a a 104-10 record in non-conference games at Reed Arena for a 91 percent winning percentage.
Next for the Aggies, 5-1, is a road test against the Houston Cougars at Hofheinz Pavilion on Saturday at 5:30 pm in the first matchup against the Cougars since 2004.