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Aggies destroy Bears 80-61 at Reed Arena

#24 Texas A&M blitzed #16 Baylor from the word go, pushing the lead as high as 29 points in their best effort of the season. This is a dangerous basketball team.

Erich Schlegel-USA TODAY Sports

How much fun was that?

On a week when this fanbase sorely, sorely needed some good news, the Aggies put their best effort of the season together in a thorough dismantling of Baylor.

Let's take a second look at this one in glorious detail.

The highlights are available here

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We flew out of the blocks. Twice.

An energetic 9,000+ at Reed Arena was ready to jump on the first bit of good news, and we obliged with a 7-0 run to start the game. The crowd got rolling, Baylor got flustered, and we pushed the lead to 13-2 by the first media break.

At the start of the second half we had a 51-30 lead... and we did the exact same thing. Three quick buckets were punctuated by a Danuel House three that damn near blew the roof off Reed, and just like that we had a 28 point advantage on our hands. The Bears never threatened.

We punched Baylor in the mouth, and they weren't up for the fight.

Everything is cool when you're part of a team

We had great efforts across the board on Saturday.

  • Tyler Davis: I'm consistently amazed at how polished his post game is at this age. 15 points on 6-6 shooting, all earned the hard way down low. Man's game.
  • Jalen Jones: Jones was as good as ever in the paint, dropping 17 points on 8-15 from the field and adding a heat check three for good measure.
  • Alex Caruso: The Swiss-army knife did it again. Eight assists and only one turnover, with six points, two steals, and three offensive rebounds tossed in for fun.
  • Danuel House: His ice cold streak (3-23 from downtown in previous three games) appears to be over. He blew up on Saturday with four threes, 17 points, and 8 rebounds.
  • Anthony Collins: Seven assists and two turnovers, and he shot well enough (2-4 3PT) to keep the Bears honest on defense.
  • The Bench (Trocha; Miller; Hogg; Gilder): They didn't set the nets on fire (5-18 from the field), but they crashed the glass and busted their butts on defense. We played our second unit for extended stretches in the second half, and the lead never dwindled.

Jalen Jones said it best post game:

"We're a dangerous team when we're all clicking."

The Sky is the Limit

Before the season we said this team's ceiling was a solid conference finish in the 2nd tier (i.e., non-Kentucky tier) of SEC squads, but things have changed in the past few weeks. Kentucky has already lost twice, Vanderbilt has three losses (one of which is to Baylor), and LSU is a hot mess of epic proportions.

If we keep playing like this, we can win the SEC.

Adjust your sails, Ags. This team is capable of great things.

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There's one tuneup game remaining (Cal Poly on the 29th) before we fly into conference play at home against Arkansas on January 2nd.

How do you feel heading into the conference slate?