Well, life comes at you fast in college basketball, and for Texas A&M, their stay in the AP Top 25 lasted for about a day, after falling to Murray State 88-79 in the quarterfinals of the Myrtle Beach Invitational, then falling off a second butt-kicking in the consolation round against Colorado 103-75, things went downhill very quickly.
On Sunday afternoon, the Aggies had one more chance to get a win to get things back on track facing Loyola Chicago for 7th place in the tournament, and man did they deliver. In what was a 67-51 romp, the Aggies led by 11 points at the half, while getting back to their usual defensive form, notching 16 steals, and increasing the lead to 21 at one point in the second half.
Head coach Buzz Williams changed up his starting lineup, while forward Henry Coleman III came off the bench for the first time this season scoring 13 points and 5 rebounds, combined with fellow forward Julius Marble, who was the second leading scorer on the day with 11 points and 5 rebounds, as the inside game found it’s rhythm early and often.
One stat to note was Texas A&M’s poor 3-point shooting, going 4-17 as a team, while guard Wade Talyor IV, who had 10 points on the day, went 0-4, and went 2-16 from 3-point land during the entire tournament. In order to match up with some of the higher-scoring teams in the SEC down the line, this stat will have to drastically improve.
The 3-2 Aggies will return to action on Friday as they remain on the road traveling to Chicago to face 3-2 Depaul at 12:00 PM CT., and the game will be aired on FS1.
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