It seemed as if another miraculous three-pointer would hinder Texas A&M from earning its first SEC win of the season.
But Ole Miss guard Breein Tyree’s potential game-winning basket circled out of the rim at the buzzer with the Aggies snapping a five-game losing streak by beating the Rebels 71-69 at Reed Arena Tuesday night.
Both A&M head coach Billy Kennedy and forward Robert Williams said the team had been praying for a win the past few days, as their wishes were finally answered.
“We’ve been praying for a break through, using that word the past couple of days,” Kennedy said. “You’ve got to get a break and I believe it was going to go out because we’ve had too many things go wrong.”
After coming out on the losing end of two one-point losses in the past two weeks, center Tyler Davis was pleased to come away with a win in a tight game. Davis hit the game-winning shot on a put-back layup with 22.4 seconds to go.
“Fighting like that and then coming out on top is always good,” Davis said. “As long as we keep playing hard and our effort is great every play, we have a chance to win close games.”
Offensively, the Aggies had polar opposite performances in the second half.
In the first 10 minutes, A&M was colder than it was outside in College Station, going 2-of-12 (16.7 percent)
After a timeout was called with 9:58 to go, the Aggies began to solve the puzzle and finished the game 10-of-17 (58.8 percent) from the field. A&M also had four offensive rebounds in that stretch that were converted into eight second chance points.
“We came out at the start of the second half and started getting loose again. We had some turnovers, some missed opportunities to score and we got sloppy,” Kennedy said. “I think down the stretch, we did a better job of executing and getting the ball in the paint whether it was off the drive or Tyler and Rob did a good job getting on the glass.”
Leading the charge down the stretch were the Aggie big men Davis and Williams. Davis recorded his sixth double-double of the season with 20 points and 12 rebounds. Williams had 18 of his own, with 12 coming on six dunks.
“I thought the second half he was really good,” Kennedy said of Williams. “He was all around the rim and he was going to the glass on both ends of the floor and blocking shots. In the first half, we couldn’t get him going.”
With the monkey off its back, A&M can focus on turning its first league win into more as the Aggies host Missouri on Saturday at 3 p.m.
“We’re all relieved,” Kennedy said. “As long we can have all of our guys and stay healthy, we had some stretches where were really good and we’ve got to get back to making that more consistent.”