The Texas A&M men’s basketball team faced off against Missouri Saturday afternoon and were defeated by the Tigers 66-43.
The 23-point deficit ties for A&M’s largest loss of the season. The game became the Aggies’ fourth straight loss at home and their fourth conference loss overall.
The Aggies fall to a 7-9 record this season and are now 1-4 in conference play, while the Tigers move to 10-6 for the season and 1-3 in the SEC.
A&M struggled throughout the game, only shooting 26 percent from the field. The team was also struggling from the three point line and the free throw line, where the Aggies shot 18 percent and 52 percent, respectively.
A&M head coach Billy Kennedy said that the team’s lack of scoring hurt their chances to win and forced the defense to work twice as hard.
“I thought the first 10 minutes we competed, but we just can’t score,” Kennedy said. “When you can’t score, you’re missing free throws, missing layups, and you’re getting open threes and you’re not making them, it puts a lot of pressure on your defense.”
Team effort was also called into question by Kennedy after he replaced many of the starting lineup with players off the bench. This comes after Wednesday night’s loss to Auburn, when Auburn’s senior guard Bryce Brown commented on the Aggies’ lack of effort.
Kennedy said he wanted to see his players be competitive, and he brought in players from the bench as he saw fit.
“I was going to bring in guys that were going to compete and play the way that Texas A&M should be playing,” Kennedy said. “The day after the Auburn game, our energy and our effort wasn’t very good, and that’s one of the reasons why we changed our line up a little bit.”
A&M junior forward Josh Nebo said the team needs to stick together even when they get behind their opponents.
“We just didn’t have it again, and came out flat once again,” Nebo said. “I mean obviously when we’re losing by 20, the team’s kind of down, but we’ve got to have guys talking to each other and picking each other up. We’ve got to play for one another, not just ourselves.”
The Aggies will return to action on Tuesday against the Florida Gators in Gainesville, Florida at the Exactech Arena. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. and will be televised on the SEC Network.