After falling to the Oregon Ducks in the first game of the Players Era Festival on Tuesday, the No. 20 Texas A&M men’s basketball defeated the No. 21 Creighton Bluejays 77-73 in MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Nov. 27.
Aggie coach Buzz Williams had two different starters trot out after A&M’s loss to Oregon. Senior guard Jace Carter and graduate forward Henry Coleman III replaced senior F Andersson Garcia and junior center Pharrel Payne.
The Bluejays also had a change to the starting lineup following their 71-53 loss to the San Diego State Aztecs. Fifth-year senior G Steven Ashworth came back after twisting his ankle late in Creighton’s game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Nov. 22.
Creighton came out guns blazing, going on an 8-0 scoring run to begin the game. Thanks in part to two early turnovers committed by the Maroon and White.
Ashworth made his presence known from the jump, coming out firing from the 3-point line. He secured a pair of threes to put the Bluejays ahead 13-7 going into the first media timeout, with 15:23 left to go in the first half.
The Aggies eventually got their heads back in the game, reducing the Bluejays lead to three. Carter hauled in an offensive rebound off a miss from senior G Zhuric Phelps before swinging the rock to Garcia who banged a three pointer to make things 15-12 with 11:55 left in the first half.
The Bluejays early barrage from behind the arc allowed them widen the gap as junior G Pop Isaacs matched Ashworth with two successful three pointers of his own. Success from three combined with an Aggie scoring drought, made things 23-16 with 6:42 left in the first half.
The Fightin’ Farmers nearly-five minute scoring drought ended after graduate G Wade Taylor IV made a stepback three to make things, 25-19. Taylor became the Aggie’s fourth highest career scorer the day before versus the Ducks.
Creighton possessed a four point lead going into halftime. Both the Aggies and Bluejays shot a poorly combined 19-for-61 from the field, which left things at a bizmail 31-27 with one half of basketball remaining.
After trailing all night A&M gained its first lead of the game, going up 34-33 with 17:49 to-go in the second half, thanks to a three pointer from junior F Solomon Washington.
The two teams then traded the lead a handful of times before an Ashworth three and a three minute A&M scoring drought gave Creighton a seven point lead, 43-36.
The Aggies ended their second scoring drought of the night after Payne stole the ball from Bluejay senior G/F Jamiya Neal to tie things up 47-47 with 12:21 remaining in the game.
Both teams proceeded to do what they do best with the Bluejays supplying an onslaught of threes while the Aggies secured countless second-chance points.
With 4:53 remaining A&M trailed 59-57, before a foul by Coleman put Cerighton in the bonus and sent Isaacs to the free throw line. However Phelps had other plans, as he scored two straight buckets to tie things up 61-61.
The Maroon and White led the remainder of the game until Creighton freshman F Jackson McAndrew banged in a shot from behind the arc to give the Bluejays a 70-69 lead with 57 seconds remaining.
With 35 seconds to-go the man known as “Solo” secured an and-one on a heavily contested layup. A successful shot from the charity stripe gave A&M the lead, 72-70.
A successful game of keepaway by the Aggies meant that the Bluejays eventually found themselves trailing 74-71 with 10.5 seconds left. This forced coach Greg McDermott to call his last timeout, with the game on the line.
However, whatever play Mcdermott drew up will ever see the light of day, as Neal never managed to inbound the ball before being called for a five-second violation.
This crucial error cost Creighton as A&M went on to win 77-73. This marked Williams’ 100th victory as the head coach of A&M. He touched on what the performance by his team meant after the game.
“We thought our guys responded really well relative to the things that we were deficient at yesterday,” Williams said. “The team we played today is good enough to play anywhere and beat anybody.”
The Aggies end round robin play as the No. 3 seed from the Power Group and will face the Impact Group’s No. 3 seed Saturday, Nov. 30.
