Texas A&M men’s basketball improved its record to 8-2 Saturday, Dec. 18 with its victory over the 1-10 Oregon State Beavers at Gill Coliseum in Corvallis, Ore. The win follows a loss on Dec. 11 against TCU at the Battleground 2k21 event at the Toyota Center in Houston.
A&M coach Buzz Williams said he was pleased with the way the Aggies fought in their first true road game of the season.
“I thought the energy and the spirit we competed with from start to finish was for sure the best [we’ve had this season],” Williams said. “Obviously, it was the first road game of the year, [and] I thought our guys played with great poise.”
In the first half, the Aggies overcame an early 5-1 deficit to take an 8-5 lead behind a pair of layups from sophomore forward Henry Coleman III.
Early on, the Beavers were dependent on their perimeter shooting, with seven of their first 10 shots coming from behind the 3-point line. Oregon State only managed to convert two of them.
Inefficient offense plagued both teams as each had field goal percentages below 40% and scored only 10 points within the first eight minutes of the game. For A&M, its five forced turnovers kept the game close at the start as they looked to find their footing on offense.
The Aggies used an 8-3 run coming out of a timeout to kick start their offense. However, Oregon State quickly responded with a 4-0 spurt of their own to continue the back-and-forth first half.
As the half wore on, A&M continued to rely on its defense turning into offense. Over a third of the maroon and white’s 20 points came from turnovers. Oregon State’s nine turnovers gave A&M plenty of opportunities.
Heading into a media timeout, a 3-pointer from A&M junior guard Andre Gordon gave the Aggies a 27-25 lead over Oregon State with 3:37. The 3-pointer was his first make in five attempts in the first half.
The Aggies built up their lead to 36-29 over the Beavers heading into halftime. Statistically, the Aggies were led by freshman guard Wade Taylor IV. Taylor’s efficient nine points off the bench stood out in a half marred by inefficient offensive play from both teams.
The Aggies and the Beavers each combined to turn the ball over 19 times, though the teams did improve their field goal percentages to over 40% at the conclusion of the first half.
A&M came out strong in the second half as the team quickly built its lead to 10 points. A layup from graduate guard Quenton Jackson increased A&M’s lead to 45-33 and forced Oregon State to call a timeout with the game on the verge of getting out of hand for the Beavers.
A Taylor layup matched his career-high of 14 points as well as increased A&M’s lead to 50-35. However, the Beavers refused to go down fighting as they mounted a 9-5 run to get to within 11 points of the Aggies heading into a media timeout. A layup from Coleman put the Aggies’ lead back up to 57-45 and resulted in the Beavers surprisingly calling their final timeout with 11 minutes left to play.
As play resumed, A&M went on an 11-0 run to get its lead to 21 points. This marked the maroon and white’s largest lead so far in the game. The Beavers had not scored in over four minutes of play. A big issue for Oregon State was that it had committed over 20 turnovers with roughly seven minutes left in the game.
Up comfortably with only a few minutes to play, A&M went into cruise control possibly a bit too early. Three made free throws from the Beavers concluded a late run that got them to within 13 points, 79-66, of the Aggies with 1:51 left to play.
However, a 3-pointer from Gordon with 0:48 left to play increased A&M’s lead back to 14 points to put a bow on the victory for the Aggies. A&M ended up winning the game 83-73 over Oregon State.
Statistically, Taylor led the way with a career-high 19 points off the bench in only 16 minutes. Coleman led the starters with 16 points and shot 75% from the field. The Aggies also hit 10 3-pointers and forced 20 turnovers in the game, converting them into 19 points.
Taylor said one of the main catalysts behind his great performance was his teammates instilling confidence in him.
“Tonight I was feeling it,” Taylor said. “Give credit to my teammates. They told me to go out there and play how I know how to play.”