Texas A&M
4-1
West Virginia
4-0
Aggies Fall To No. 8 West Virginia 73-66
Nov 27, 2009 | Men's Basketball
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP)--Da'Sean Butler scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half to lead No. 8 West Virginia to a 73-66 victory over Texas A&M in the 76 Classic at the Anaheim Convention Center on Friday.
Butler added five rebounds and five assists for the Mountaineers (4-0), who advanced to Sunday's tournament final. Devin Ebanks came off the bench to score 14 points and nine rebounds, and Darryl Bryant chipped in with 12 points.
B.J. Holmes and Donald Sloan scored 18 points apiece for the Aggies (5-1). Bryan Davis added a season-high 10 rebounds.
With the score at 44-all, Butler scored 10 points during a 12-1 surge that gave West Virginia a 56-45 lead with 11:47 to play.
Texas A&M, which led by as many as four points in the first half, used a 6-0 run to narrow the deficit to 67-63 with 1:08 left
But after Butler converted a free throw, Ebanks stole the ball, was fouled on a slam dunk and made the ensuing free throw to extend the lead to 71-63 with 42.9 seconds left.
The Mountaineers shot 51.1 percent for the game, 61.9 percent in the second half.
The Aggies committed 16 turnovers and missed 13 of 31 free throws, including eight of 17 in the second half.
Sloan became the 30th A&M to reach 1,000 points in a career. He has scored 1,005 points in 108 games.
The Aggies will play No. 16-ranked Minnesota Sunday in the third-place game. The Golden Gophers will be the third top-20 team the Aggies have played in a four-day stretch. A&M beat No. 19 Clemson, 69-60, in Thursday's opening round.
POSTGAME QUOTES
West Virginia Coach Bob Huggins
(On Devinn Michaels coming back in and fitting in) - "I wasn't too concerned with him coming back in. I was more concerned that he hasn't practiced and concerned about his stamina and you get concerned about habits. We got to have five guys doing the same thing and we didn't have that today. That's what I was concerned about. I wasn't concerned about Devin. We've had problems of keeping things going. They (Texas A&M) played very well and we turned the ball over too many times."
Texas A&M Coach
"I thought West Virginia played great today. Butler really took over the game with some big threes. In fact, they made a lot of threes today. We expected West Virginia to hit them, but didn't expect the amount of threes they made. It got very physical in the second half, but I'm proud of the team because they didn't quit and kept battling."
(on the problems in the game) "We couldn't guard them or stop their shots in the second half. We didn't have any success with our secondary break or motion. Their half court defense really made the difference and you have to give them credit for that. We also missed some free throws in the second half. It was a four point game, but we kept missing the free throws and that hurt us."
