Texas A&M
3-1
Boston College
3-1
Aggies Drop Heartbreaker to Boston College, 67-65
Nov 25, 2010 | Men's Basketball
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) - Reggie Jackson scored 21 points and Joe Trapani added 14 to lead Boston College past Texas A&M 67-65 Thursday in the opening round of the Old Spice Classic.
Jackson scored on a nifty tip-in off an inbound pass with two minutes left and added a jumper one minute later as Boston College (3-1) went ahead 66-62.
Khris Middleton had 19 points for Texas A&M (3-1). David Loubeau scored 15 and B.J Holmes had 14.
Holmes had a chance to tie it for Texas A&M when he was fouled on his 3-point basket with 43.8 seconds remaining. But the guard missed the free throw, which left the Aggies down 66-65.
Dash Harris' lay-up attempt to force overtime rolled off the rim at the buzzer.
Middleton had a 3 and added two free throws to pull Texas A&M even at 53 with 6:32 to play.
Jackson had a fastbreak slam during an 9-0 run that gave Boston College a 49-38 lead six minutes into the second half. Consecutive long-range jumpers by Holmes and Middleton got Texas A&M within 49-44 with 12:49 remaining.
Jackson and Trapani both hit a pair of 3's and had eight points to help Boston College take a 33-28 halftime lead. The Eagles went 7 of 13 from 3-point range during the opening 20 minutes.
TEXAS A&M POSTGAME NOTES
TEAM
- The Aggies will meet either Wisconsin or Manhattan on Friday at 1:30 p.m. (CT). (ESPNU/ESPN3D)
- Texas A&M is now 9-3 in early-season tournaments under Mark Turgeon.
- Thursday's meeting was the first between the schools in basketball.
- Texas A&M outrebounded the Eagles, 32-16, marking the fourth game this year where the Aggies have bested their opponents on the glass.
- Texas A&M shot 83 percent from the free-throw line (14-17), a season-high.
- A&M's 7 3-pointers matched a season high (7 vs A&M-CC, 11/15) ... the Aggies have now hit a 3-pointer in 360 consecutive games dating back to January 13, 2001.
- The Aggies allowed a season-high 25 points off 14 turnovers ... the previous high by an opponent was 19 by Alcorn State (11/12).
- A&M got just 9 points off 8 BC turnovers ... both numbers are season lows.
- The Aggies committed 6 first-half fouls, marking the third straight half of basketball where A&M committed fewer than 10 fouls ... A&M was whistled 10 times in the second half.
- A&M's 2 fast-break points were its fewest since a loss at Kansas State last year (1/12/10).
- The Aggies had trailed for a total of 1 minute, 26 seconds entering today's game, but trailed Boston College the entire game ... the game featured 3 ties, all coming fairly late in the second half.
- The Aggies erased an 11-point second-half deficit (with 13:50 to play) but was unable to take a lead ... A&M tied the game at the 6:32 mark and again at the 3:18 and 2:42 marks.
- A&M trailed at halftime for the first time this season.
- Texas A&M's loss is just the fourth in the last 11 games away from Reed Arena.
INDIVIDUAL
- Sophomore Khris Middleton matched a career high with 19 points (vs Utah State, NCAA 1st Round, 3/19/10) ... his six assists were a career high (previous 3) and he was one rebound (7) shy of his career high (8 vs Angelo State, 11/13/09) ... Middleton's 35 minutes played were also a career high.
- Middleton was 3-for-4 from the free throw line, snapping a string of 23 consecutive free throws made dating back to last season.
- Middleton has scored in double figures in 8 of last 9 games dating back to last season.
- Senior Marshall Carrell earned the first start of his career.
- David Loubeau has posted back-to-back double-figure games after 15 points and 6 rebounds against BC.
- Senior B.J. Holmes' 14 points were a season high ... his 4 3-pointers made were also a season high.
- Four players scored in double figures for the Aggies for the fourth straight game (Middleton 19, Loubeau 15, Holmes 14, Walkup 13).
TEXAS A&M POSTGAME QUOTES: Head Coach Mark Turgeon
"I thought Boston College was great the whole day. They made every play. They had a great game plan. They hadn't shown a soft press back to zone all year. They zoned a few possessions. I thought they were great. I thought we responded a bunch, but could never get a stop when we needed a stop. They had guys make free throws and make threes all day. I thought they played almost the perfect game. We could never get the lead, and every time we got it tied they just made play after play after play. We made some really costly turnovers. We'll learn from it."
On the rebounding and turnovers... "Turnovers led to 25 of their 67 points. Just dumb turnovers. Two out-of-bounds under (the basket), which is uncharacteristic of us. We've just got a lot of guys that were really out of it. To play a team like Boston College that changed their defense, it was hard on some of our guys so we had to shorten our bench. Our two out-of-bounds under turnovers were ridiculous. We really lost control of the game there, we got down 10 or 11 and had to fight to get back in it. The turnovers were disappointing. We had a lot of guys not play well. You don't want your turnovers to lead to layups, and two of our turnovers took away baskets-charges-on guys trying to go in and take shots. And on the other end we had chances for guys to take charges and we didn't do it. It's a fine line between winning and losing and we made enough mistakes to lose today. I just think Boston College was great. I thought their whole team was really good, crisp. They were much more into it than our guys were. They wanted it a lot more than we did. You could go on and on."
On BC's defense changes... "It affected some of us. The soft press back to zone to start the game, we weren't expecting that. That got us a little bit. But we are a good zone offense team, I'm not really concerned about that. I just think they did everything they could to show the game down. I thought their coach did a great job subbing every dead ball and I thought that was the difference in the game. It confused some guys. They shot 49 percent, and our defense just wasn't good enough to win today.
On Dash Harris' injury... "I don't know, we'll see. It's his heel. I didn't think he'd be able to play. He tried to play, and he looked pretty good on that last play. He didn't look hurt to me. So we'll see how he is in the morning."
