What a difference a year makes.
In Texas A&M’s exhibition last year against Texas A&M-Kingsville, the matchup was close throughout. A&M escaped that night with a 76-72 victory. This year was a much different story. A&M cruised to a dominant victory against Kingsville to kick off its 2022-23 season.
“I thought we played with great energy,” Williams said. “We really struggled on the defensive glass. Saturday, at our scrimmage, we did not contest shots at the rate that we needed to. [Tonight was] dramatically better. I thought we played [unselfishly and] played for one another. Overall, to be able to play in front of fans for the first time, I thought there were a lot of good things.”
At the start of the game, A&M capitalized on Kingsville to build an early lead. A&M found success acting the paint against the Kingsville defense. The results were either easy layups at the rim or trips to the foul line. After the first timeout, A&M led 12-4.
After a hockey-esque lineup change, the Aggies went on a 6-0 run to build their lead to 18-4. The Javelinas struggled to deal with the Aggies on ball pressure, and continued to frequently turn the ball over.
Despite sloppy turnovers for A&M, the team built its lead to 26-6 with seven minutes to go in the first half.
As the first half wore on, the maroon and white continued to impose their will on the Javelinas on both ends of the court. On offense, A&M found success by creating shots off of drives, whether that be to a three-point shooter or inside the paint. With three minutes to go, the maroon and white led 39-12.
After a layup at the buzzer from sophomore guard Wade Taylor IV, A&M led 49-19 over Kingsville at halftime.
In the first half, the Aggies generated 14 Javelina turnovers and had 21 fast-break points. Kingsville struggled mightily, shooting 25% from the field and 0/10 from the three-point line. A&M was much more efficient, shooting 60% from the field and 50% from the three-point line on six attempts. A&M also took advantage of its free throws, converting 10/12. A&M had 10 of its 11 players in the scoring column.
It was much of the same for the Aggies in the second half. Halfway through, the maroon and white built up its lead to 69-24 over the Javelinas.
Give credit to the Javelinas. Even though they seemed to be out-matched in every phase of the game, the team continued to play with high effort on both ends of the floor despite trailing by 30 points. The Javelinas even started to put together better offensive positions against the Aggie defense. Granted, a lot of starters for the Aggies were out of the game at this point.
In the end, A&M took home the win over Kingsville by the score of 90-47.
Statistically, freshman forward Solomon Washington led the way for A&M with 15 points in his first game with the team. Junior guard Hayden Hefner also put together an impressive performance with 10 points off the bench.
Up next for the Aggies is their first official game of the season against Louisiana-Monroe at Reed Arena on Monday, Nov. 7. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.