Its holiday hoops season at A&M, and the Aggies are back to action after a long break for the Christmas holiday.
No. 19 A&M hits the hardwood on Tuesday night to take on Cal-Poly at Reed Arena in the first ever meeting between the two programs. It will be A&M’s final test before conference play begins on January 2 against Arkansas.
The Aggies (9-2) have feasted at home this year, posting a perfect 7-0 record while averaging just a hair under 87 points per game. Senior Jalen Jones has also enjoyed the comfy confines of Reed, averaging 21.3 points per contest in home games.
Coming off the heels of their 80-61 thrashing of Baylor, A&M waltzes into Tuesday with another highly-touted freshman joining the roster. Kobie Eubanks, a four-star prospect out of Fort Lauderdale, Fla, joins the teams’ active roster on Tuesday, and could see some playing time should the game become a blowout.
Senior Alex Caruso is on the verge of achieving yet another milestone in his historical Aggie career. He reached 500 career assists against Kansas State, and needs just four steals to garner the all-time school record for that category. He also now ranked first among active college basketball players with 226 career steals, and Anthony Collins leads all active players in the NCAA with 619 career steals.
A&M center Tyler Davis was named the SEC Freshman of the Week after his 13 point outing against Baylor, where he shut down Baylor star big man Rico Gathers.
The Mustangs (6-6) success revolves around the one-two punch of David Nwaba and Joel Awich. Both are the senior leaders of the team, and both also lead the team in points, averaging 11.6 and 11.7 per contest respectively. Morgan Reese is another name to watch for on Tuesday, as he leads the team in three-point shooting at 46 percent.
Quality shooting will be a key for the Mustangs. Cal Poly is 6-0 when they have a better shooting percentage than their opponent, and 0-6 when they shoot worse than their opponent.
The Aggies and Mustangs will tip-off at Reed Arena at 7 pm to close out the 2015 calendar year. The game will air on SEC Network Plus or can be watched on ESPN3.