Texas A&M defeats Prairie View A&M 73-53

Well, we’ve developed a bit of a trend against these underwhelming opponents.

For the third “cupcake” game running, the score was close well into the second half... and it took yet another late run to put the home crowd at ease. We should take note of Florida’s home loss to Loyola - a fancy single digit ranking isn’t enough to guarantee victory.

Let’s break it down.

Sloppy, Sloppy, Sloppy

The ball handling, passing, and general ball movement was poor for large stretches early, resulting in eleven first half turnovers. We shot the ball well enough (54%) in the first half, which allowed us to build a 37-29 halftime lead, but the general malaise from the Pepperdine and UT-RGV games was still evident.

This is a team that knows they can put away lesser talent on a whim.

Ugh, fine, let’s put them away

The Panthers cut the lead to 44-40 with fifteen minutes remaining, which prompted our traditional “ok, you have our attention” response. We held Prairie View scoreless for seven minutes and slapped together an 18-0 run to calm the natives’ nerves. The scoreline stayed at or around 20 for the remainder of the game, culminating with a final score of 73-53

Box Score

Some Positives

It wasn’t all frustration and sleepwalking - we had some solid performances on Saturday:

• Robert Williams had four blocks and 16 rebounds
• DJ Hogg shot above 50% yet again, hitting 5-9 from the field and 2-4 from three
• Tyler Davis was extremely efficient, hitting 4-5 shots and adding four blocks
• And yes, we won by 20

Next up is 3-8 Savannah State on December 13th. We’re headed for more of the same over the next few weeks, as Aggie Hoops doesn’t face a major conference opponent until the SEC opener on December 30th. Small schools have put legitimate scares into big programs across the country recently, so here’s hoping we can breathe easy until the start of conference play.

BTHO Savannah State