Texas A&M
2-1
College of Charleston
1-3
Basketball Rallies for 59-50 Win over College of Charleston
Nov 21, 2014 | Men's Basketball
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Peyton Allen had 14 points, Jalen Jones added 12 and Texas A&M rallied in the second half to get past College of Charleston 59-50 in the consolation round of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off Friday.
The Aggies (2-1) trailed by five with more than eight minutes remaining before outscoring the Cougars 27-13 to end the game. Jordan Green had nine of his 11 points in the final four minutes.
Joe Chealey and Anthony Stitt had 10 points apiece to lead Charleston (1-3).
Stitt helped carry the Cougars offense for the second straight game, but had seven turnovers. It matched the seven turnovers in their opening loss to Connecticut.
Texas A&M plays the winner of New Mexico and George Mason in the consolation final on Sunday. Charleston plays the loser of that game.
After trailing for most of the second half, Texas A&M took a 39-37 lead on a dunk by Antwan Space with about 7 minutes to play. That cushion grew to 46-39 on a pair of free throws by Jordan Green, capping a 14-2 spurt.
The Aggies settled down, and twice cut the lead down to two. But five straight points by Green pushed the lead back up to six with about a minute left.
Charleston controlled the tempo in the first half and got production from its bench, which outscored Texas A&M's reserves 12-2.
The Aggies also struggled shooting the ball, connecting on just 6 of their 23 field goal attempts, including 2 of 11 from beyond the arc.
Alex Caruso, who led Texas A&M with 17 in their opening game Thursday, was held to just three at the half. The Aggies big rebounder in that game - Kourtney Roberson - had only one in the opening 20 minutes against the Cougars, and two for the game.
Texas A&M Basketball
Postgame Notes
Texas A&M 59, College of Charleston 50
Nov. 21, 2014 ● Coliseo Roberto Clemente
TEAM RECORDS & SERIES NOTES
● Texas A&M improved to 2-1 on the season win the 59-50 win over College of Charleston, with the loss the Cougars fell to 1-3 on the season..
● The Aggies are now 1-0 all-time against the Cougars.
TEAM NOTES
● The Aggies continue to force their opponents to turn the ball over, as Charleston coughed it up 17 times today (18 vs Northwestern St, 17 vs Dayton). The 17 turnovers on Friday led to 16 points for A&M.
● The maroon and white made a season-high 20 free-throws on the day on 24 attempts, including going 14-for-15 from the charity stripe in the second half. Of the seven Aggies that attempted a free-throw, none missed on more than one occasion.
● The 50 points for the College of Charleston were the lowest A&M has allowed this season.
● Each team had a stark contrast in field-goal percentage following the intermission. Texas A&M was 12/25 (48%) in the second half, against just 6/24 (25%) shooting in the first half. The Cougars were 10/23 (43.5%) in the first 20 minutes versus just 8/26 (30.8%) in the second half.
● The Aggies doubled the Cougars in points in the paint, 26-12, and held the Cougars without any fast break points while netting six of their own. INDIVIDUAL NOTES
● Junior Jalen Jones tallied his first double-double in the maroon and white, scoring 12 points and hauling in a game-high 11 rebounds.
● Senior Jordan Green scored nine of the Aggies last 15 points in the game, finishing with 11 points on the day. The second time the senior has scored in double figures this season.
● Freshman Peyton Allen led A&M in scoring for the first time this season, scoring 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the floor. The Illinois native made a pair of three-pointers and free-throws Friday.
● The SEC assist-leader from a season ago, Alex Caruso, was back at it again as he finished with seven assists to go along with nine points. The College Station product has had at least five assists in each game this year.
FIRST HALF NOTES
● The Aggies struggled from the floor over the first 20 minutes shooting 6-for-23 (26.1%), including 2-of-11 from beyond the three-point line (18.2%). Charleston shot 10-for-23 from the floor in the first half (43.5%) and 4-for-9 from deep (44.4%).
● The Cougars and Aggies went into the break tied on the boards at 16 apiece.
● College of Charleston's bench outscored the A&M bench 12-3 in the first half, A&M's bench points came from Devonte Fitzgerald (2) and Tavario Miller (1).
● The maroon and white forced eight Cougar turnovers, leading to 10 points.
UP NEXT
● Texas A&M will face will conclude play in the consolation final against the winner of tonight's New Mexico/George Mason game… The game will be played at 1 p.m. (CT) on ESPNU.
Postgame Quotes
Head Coach Earl Grant, College of Charleston
“We really competed today. We didn't know Adjehi Baru was going to be out until two hours before the game started and that really through a last minute monkey wrench into our game plan. I thought the young guys who did play in his place on a positive side gave us a great lift. Like Glen Pierre played 23 minutes and he hadn't played a combined 23 minutes the whole season. Glen gave us a great lift and Dave Wishon protected the rim pretty well and our freshmen both came in and did a good job too. I was pleased with their effort.”
“There were a few key turnovers down the stretch that really hurt us. And I thought there were a few decisions that I made in the last seven minutes that kind of cost us as well. We have to learn from it and try to continue to get better.”
“I think he (Jordan Green of Texas A&M) came out freak with nine points in the last four minutes after not scoring yesterday. Kind of like ball spin rotations where guys are rotating and the lose sight of the guy on the weak side and they skip it across and get a few baskets. Some of it was in transition and they would get it to him and he got free two or three times for a layup and one was a tip. It's just one of those things that happens in a game.”
“Baru says he's fine and the trainer says he's fine, but he has a lot of soreness in his knee but he hasn't had an MRI so we really won't know the extent of his injury until we get to review it further but both he and the trainer think he's going to be fine.”
Head Coach Billy Kennedy, Texas A&M
“I think it was hard to score and I think both of us had tough, hard-fought games yesterday that took a little bit out of us but fortunately in the second half our depth was a big key that helped us work through the fatigue and get the win. We played with good energy but offensively we are just struggling to find a way to score. We have to do a better job of it which we did some in the second half. Our guard play hasn't been very good, just the decision making. I've got to do a better job of helping our guys get into the offensive and that's a big, big thing for us. Charleston guarded the ball screens a little bit different than we have seen all year and that created some problems for us, especially in the first half.”
“Jordan Green and Peyton Allen were just huge for us today, especially after yesterday when we didn't get much out of either of them. It's good to see the resiliency in both of them and our entire team. We have good character and a good group of kids. It paid off today. I would say something similar for Charleston. Earl Grant is doing a tremendous job with their team. Jordan scored nine points in four minutes and we got him the ball in a position where he could score and that was all around the basket. He had some athletic plays and we finally moved the ball around some and it paid off with a win. We got some easy buckets and Jordan finished strong. That was big for us.”
Team Stats
Game Leaders
Players Mentioned
