INSTANT REACTION: Aggie Basketball beats Cal Poly 82-63

Ten days removed from a marquee victory over the Baylor Bears, Texas A&M basketball took care of business against non-conference foe Cal Poly, 82-63. This marked the final non-conference game before A&M begins SEC play against Arkansas this Saturday at Reed Arena.

The Ags were led by Tyler Davis nearly achieving a double-double, scoring 18 points along with 8 rebounds. By shooting 8-9 this evening, Davis has now made 19 out of his last 20 shots in A&M's last three games, keeping his reign as the NCAA leader in Field Goal Percentage.

The Aggies came out a tad slow in the first five minutes, but a 24-5 run gave the maroon and white a 19-point left with 8 minutes left in the first half. Though Cal Poly made things interesting a couple of times, they never got closer than 9 points for the rest of the game. While shows of complacency ailed the Aggies during a few spurts, they ultimately were able to overpower the Mustangs with relative ease. Here are a few items to take away from tonight's victory.

FREE THROWS ARE ONCE AGAIN A CONCERN

A&M shot 42.9% from the charity stripe tonight. Not only that, but this was the 3^rd time in the last 4 games that the Ags shot below 50% on free throws. To put it kindly, that is not very good. This evening's game could have been over much sooner if A&M just had an average night of free throw shooting.

While he shot 8-9 from the field, Davis struggled at the line going 2-7. Plano West teammate DJ Hogg also couldn't find the bottom of the net shooting 0-3. It's been a strange trend since A&M started so well at the beginning of the year, but some consistency must be achieved in this department before it comes back to bite the Aggies in conference play.

THE AGGIE BLITZ

It happened twice during the game with one coming in each half. A&M was in a little bit of a slog and the game was still tied at 8 at around the 14:30 mark. For the next six minutes, the Ags fired on all cylinders and the game was essentially out of reach at 32-13.

In the second half, Cal Poly clawed back and brought the deficit down to 9 with a little less than 9 minutes left in the game. In a three-minute span, Texas A&M extended their lead from 9 to 20 and the game was over.

This year's Aggie basketball squad proved they can match up against any opponent, but the Baylor game along with the runs tonight showed that once A&M starts to get going, they can be unstoppable.

ANTHONY COLLINS FOR 3!

While starting the duo of Anthony Collins and Alex Caruso puts two distributors and Senior leaders on the floor, their lack of scoring prowess has caused concerns for the offense. Collins is usually not one to look to shoot but tonight he found himself wide open from 3 and was not hesitant to take the shot. They don't have to light up the floor, but if they are efficient like they were tonight (5-10 combined from 3), the court will open up quite a bit for Jones/House/Davis.

Tonight's victory improves A&M's record to 10-2, including 8-0 at Reed Arena. Texas A&M begins SEC play Saturday at 3:30 against Arkansas on SEC Network.