Committing 21 turnovers, the Texas A&M men’s basketball team fell to Dayton 55-53 off a tip-in by Flyers forward Devon Scott in the closing seconds of the opening round of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off Thursday.
Head coach Billy Kennedy said his team missed several opportunities even though it moved the ball well.
“We need to execute better, especially in special situations like today,” Kennedy said. “I have to a better job getting our team prepared for situations like we faced today in a very hard-fought game. You get that many offensive rebounds like we did today, you have to score. They are a good, tough, physical team and they make you earn every bucket. We have to do a better job finishing and Dayton did it today.”
The Aggies out-rebounded the Flyers 47-26, pulling down 28 boards in the first half.
Senior forward Kourtney Roberson grabbed a career-high 15 rebounds — 10 of which came on offense. Roberson also scored 12 points, notching his eighth career double-double.
Junior guard Alex Caruso led all scorers with 17 points, 14 of which came in the second half.
For Dayton, sophomore guard Kyle Davis scored 10 points and came up with four steals. Davis — who played a limited role in last year’s Elite Eight squad — said that hard work and chemistry is why his team was able to pull out the win.
“We have been pushing and pushing to get better and stay focused,” Davis said. “Every time in practice, we preach defense, defense, defense. If our offense isn’t working, one thing we know is that our defense will be working. If I am working hard and everybody sees I’m working hard, my team will get on the bandwagon and help me out and that’s what happened today. We really helped each other out. We had a very poor game offensively, but we didn’t quiet and pulled it out at the very end.”
The Aggies (1-1) will face the loser of the Charleston-Connecticut game in round two of action in San Juan, Puerto Rico, at 11 a.m. Friday.