Texas A&M sawed the horns off of Texas at Thanksgiving once again, except this time in basketball, not football.
The Aggie men opened their time in the Battle for Atlantis tournament with an 84-73 win over Texas on Wednesday night. Led by Danuel House’s 19 points and seven rebounds, the Aggies were able to pull away late to salt the game away.
Texas (1-2) was led by the hot shooting of Eric Davis Jr, who hit on his first four three-point attempts of the game and pitched 19 points into the Longhorn effort.
The Longhorns were the first on the scoreboard, but once A&M gained the lead with 17:56 left in the first half, they never relinquished it again. A&M pushed their lead to 10 points in the first half before Texas made their first of many rallies to come within one point, but A&M was able to respond and led 49-41 at the break.
Fouls were a center story of the game, as there was a combined 56 fouls called in the game, and both squads shot a whopping 37 free throws each. The Aggies were in the bonus for the final 15 minutes of the second half.
A&M (5-0) saw good performances across the board. Anthony Collins showed his ability to efficiently run the offense, as he added 15 points and six assists to the stat sheet by nights end. Tyler Davis was solid once again, as he contributed 14 points alongside fellow freshman Admon Gilder, who was another one of the four Aggies in double figures with 12 points.
Texas refused to be beaten easily, and in the second half they made multiple runs at the Aggie lead. They pulled within one possession of A&M on three separate occasions, but each time, the Aggies used clutch three-point shooting to surge back into the driver seat.
After serving a four game suspension, Jalen Jones returned to the Aggies, but showed a bit of rust. He was just 2-for-8 shooting the ball, but he connected on five of his six free throws to add nine points to the Aggie cause.
Defensively, the Aggies turned up the heat late, and held the Horns to shoot just 22 percent from behind the arc in the second half, and held the Longhorns scoreless for three minutes to seal the deal. The free throw shooting was an improvement, as A&M shot 75 percent from the stripe in the game.
It was a solid win for the Aggies, but they have a very quick turnaround. They will take on No. 10 ranked Gonzaga in the Battle for Atlantis semi-finals at 12:00 pm on Turkey Day and the game will air on ESPN.