Texas A&M (9-6, 0-2 SEC) fell to No. 16 Auburn Tigers (13-2, 2-0) at Neville Arena on Tuesday night, losing their second SEC game in a row.
It was more of the same regarding shooting from the Aggies. They followed up their poor shooting performance from last Saturday’s home loss to LSU with an equally poor performance in the first half against Auburn. Their top offensive weapons, Wade Taylor IV and Tyrece Radford, combined for four points on 2-13 shooting.
Fortunately, their defense was able to keep them in the game, holding Auburn’s leading scorer, Johni Broome, to zero points. The Tigers also had their shooting woes for behind the three-point line, shooting 23% from behind the arc. Going into the locker room, Hayden Hefner was the leading scorer for the Aggies with 8 points and down 30 – 22.
The second half started off intense, and both teams felt the sense of urgency of needing to get a grip on the game. After the Tigers built up their biggest lead of the game, the Aggies stormed back off the tough play of Henry Coleman III. A&M’s defense forced Auburn into multiple turnovers and with about 11 mins left, Radford hit a three to give the Aggies a 44-42 lead.
Both teams exchanged the lead as the game stayed at a high pace. At the eight-minute mark, Auburn grabbed the lead back and extended it as A&M started to get a little reckless with the ball. The Tigers pushed the lead back up to 54-48. Right when the Aggies cut the lead down to two, they gave Auburn too many free points with bad fouls and careless turnovers that allowed the Tigers to hold the lead.
A&M went scoreless the last ten minutes of the game and turned the ball over a season-high 19 times in their 66-55 loss to the Auburn Tigers.
Below are the Aggie critical contributors from the game:
Tyrece Radford: 14 points / 7 rebounds
Henry Coleman III: 17 points / 5 rebounds
Texas A&M will return home to face the No. 6 Kentucky Wildcats on January 13th at 1:00 pm CT at Reed Arena
Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes, and opinions. Follow Jarrett Johnson on Twitter: @whosnextsports1.