After an emotional win over Kentucky four days ago, the Texas A&M men’s basketball team returns to the court Wednesday night and will look to refocus for a showdown against Mississippi State.
Both teams enter the game on two-game winning streaks. Mississippi State has won three of its last four games and has beaten Vanderbilt and Alabama in the last week.
The Aggies (20-7, 9-5 SEC) have three players averaging double-digit points per game. Jalen Jones leads the pack with 16.0 and leads the team in rebounds with seven per game. Danuel House and Tyler Davis are right behind Jones in points, averaging 15.4 and 10.9 respectively.
Davis is coming off a double-double against Kentucky where he also beat the buzzer at the end of overtime with a putback that sealed A&M’s victory over Kentucky. The 6-foot-10 center was named SEC Freshman of the Week and Co-SEC Player of the Week.
Senior guard Alex Caruso leads the team in assists, tallying 4.8 per game and Anthony Collins is dishing out nearly the same amount with 4.7 per game. A&M sits first in the SEC with 470 total assists and an average of 17.4 per game.
The Bulldogs (12-14, 5-9 SEC) have four players pouring in double-digits on average. Senior forward Gavin Ware averages 15.9 points per game and 7.3 rebounds per game which are both team highs.
The three others averaging double digits are Craig Sword, Malik Newman and Quinndary Weatherspoon.  Junior guard I.J. Ready leads the team in assists with 4.4 per outing and is averaging 9.8 points per game.
A&M and Mississippi State have the first and second ranked players for field goal percentage in the SEC. Davis is hitting 65.6 percent of his shots and Ware 62.5. They are the only two players making over 60 percent of their attempts.
Caruso said after enjoying the big win against Kentucky it’s time for his team to focus, and despite Mississippi State not being one of the top team’s in the SEC, the Bulldogs still present a serious threat.
“Kentucky’s over with,” Caruso said. “We need to put it behind us and get ready for Mississippi State. They’re a very dangerous team and have a lot of older guys and some young talent. They’ve won two in a row, so their confidence is sky high. It’s gonna come down to who wants it the most.”
The two teams met earlier this season on Jan. 6 when A&M escaped with a 61-60 win.
The Aggies hold an impressive record of 15-1 at home this season and are 29-5 in the last two seasons at Reed Arena.
A&M sits in a three-way tie for second in the SEC with South Carolina and LSU with all three being 9-5 in conference play and one game back of Kentucky. Aggie head coach Billy Kennedy said Tuesday he and his team are still within reach of their goal.
“Our guys know that everything is still in front of us that was in the beginning of the season,” Kennedy said. “Even though we had a tough stretch we’re still in position to compete for and [potentially] win a conference championship.”
Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Reed Arena.  The game will be broadcast on ESPN2.