Men's Hoops Blows Past LSU, 92-62

Wednesday, January 11

College Station

7:30 PM

Texas A&M

9-6 (1-3SEC)

LSU

9-6 (1-3SEC)

LSU

Texas A&M

Photo by: Thomas Campbell/Texas A&M Athletics

Jan 11, 2017 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box: A&M 92, LSU 62 Photo Gallery

By: Associated Press

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP)-- Admon Gilder and Tonny Trocha-Morelos each scored 14 points and Texas A&M won its first Southeastern Conference contest as the Aggies defeated LSU 92-62 on Wednesday night.

A&M (9-6, 1-3) jumped on LSU (9-6, 1-3) from the start, leading 13-3 after a little more than five minutes. Robert Williams and Chris Collins each added 12 points for A&M, and LSU's Antonio Blakeney scored a game-high 17 points, the only Tiger to reach double digits.

A&M held a lopsided 11-0 edge in blocks, with Williams leading the way with four and Trocha-Morelos and D.J. Hogg chipping in three each. The Aggies also held a 46-36 advantage on points in the paint.

The Aggies knew it would be their night when Trocha-Morelos smoothly tossed a behind-the-back pass to Tavario Miller for a wide-open dunk, giving the Aggies a 21-5 lead with 11:31 left in the first half.

A&M has won its last two games against the Tigers by a combined 63 points, following a 71-38 Aggies victory in the SEC tournament last March in Nashville, Tenn.

Texas A&M Basketball
Postgame Notes
Texas A&M 92, LSU 62
Jan. 11, 2017 ? Reed Arena (College Station, Texas)

RECORDS & SERIES NOTES
? Texas A&M improved to 9-6 on the season and 1-3 in SEC play after a 92-62 win over LSU Wednesday night inside Reed Arena.
? The Aggies' deficit in the all-time series was narrowed to just one (LSU now leads 18-17 all-time) as they won for the fifth time in their last six meetings with the Tigers … The two teams are slated to meet again Feb. 4 in Baton Rouge.

TEAM NOTES
? Texas A&M blocked 11 shots against the Tigers, the most in a game since recording 12 vs. Mississippi Valley State on Nov. 11, 2013.
? The Aggies' 92 points against the Tigers matched the highest output by the Maroon & White in an SEC game, set last season against Arkansas (1/2/16) & Tennessee (1/9/16).
? A&M set season highs in field goals (34), field goal percentage (56.7 percent), assists (24) and blocks (11) … The Aggies had 24 assists on 34 made field goals.
? Texas A&M used the starting lineup combination of Admon Gilder, Chris Collins, DJ Hogg, Robert Williams and Tyler Davis for the second time this season (1-1).

INDIVIDUAL NOTES
? Sophomore Chris Collins set career highs in points (12), assists (8), rebounds (4) and 3-point field goals (2) … Collins' eight assists were the second most by an Aggie this season, trailing only DJ Hogg's nine against A&M-Corpus Christi (12/5/16).
? Freshman Robert Williams contributed 12 points and blocked four shots to extend his blocked shot streak to 15 games as well as bringing his team-leading blocked shots total to 39 ... It is the longest such streak by an Aggie since Bryan Davis had a 17-game block streak from Nov. 29, 2009 to Feb. 3, 2010.
? Junior Tonny Trocha-Morelos pitched in 14 points, six rebounds, three blocks, two steals and an assist in 25 minutes of court time ... The trio of blocks set a career-high for the Cartagena, Columbia, native.
? Joining Collins, Williams and Trocha-Morelos in doubles figures were sophomores Admon Gilder (14) and DJ Hogg (10), the double-digit nights were their 22^nd and 17^th games in doubles figures in their career, respectively.
? Texas A&M head coach Billy Kennedy improved to 108-76 in his sixth season at Texas A&M and 319-255 in 19 seasons as head coach.

UP NEXT
? Texas A&M is back on the road for the third time in its first five conference affairs, traveling to Starkville, Miss., on Saturday to take on Mississippi State at Noon inside Humphrey Coliseum ... The game is slated to be televised by CBS.

TEXAS A&M HEAD COACH BILLY KENNEDY
Opening Statement…
"Obviously it is good to be at home. We got back on the winning track. I thought our guys prepared well in practice the last couple of days and it showed. In the beginning of the game, we had really good energy. I was proud of how we competed because we had some adversity with foul trouble, but our bench came in and was pretty solid for us."

On first conference win…
"It is good to see them having fun. We have been playing on the road against some really good opponents the last couple games, and we have been back on our heels a little bit. I'm glad that we were the aggressors. LSU is really young and that is how we looked a little bit the last couple of games. I don't like that look for me and I don't really like that look for anybody, but we will take the win. We need to build off of this. We are going to play a Mississippi State team that is very talented and undefeated in conference play. This league is really young but it is talented. I thought that we were ready [to play] the last two days, we have practiced. I was pretty confident that we would play well. You play like you practice. Hopefully we are growing and learning that if you put in the work then good things are going to happen. We have really good players that are good enough to win in this league and do some good things, but we do not have a lot of room for error."

On Chris Collins...
"It is no question that it is his best all-around game. I really thought DJ [Hogg] did a really good job helping him and made the extra pass and took some pressure off of [Chris]. I have said it the last couple of weeks, Chris trains himself well and prepares himself well. He has done it for two years. He is one of our veterans. He is a junior academically and he plays like it."

On defense and blocked shots...
"We played big in our zone earlier in the year. We went back and made some corrections in it that we were playing it the wrong way. We made some corrections and our guys went out and executed it the right way. We were really big in the zone and attacked it. We got after loose balls. I thought Tonny [Trocha-Morelos] came in defensively and was a presence. DJ [Hogg] was also a presence defensively. When we get 6'10 and 6'8 playing big, whether zone or man, we have a good defensive team. Robert [Williams] blocks shots and brings a lot of energy for us, especially in the zone. He protects the rim and makes us hard to score against."

SOPHOMORE GUARD CHRIS COLLINS
On this career night for him…
"It's definitely a confidence builder. I mean my teammates made plays off the plays that I made and they got me in a position to score, so I mean it's the same things we do in practice every day."

On building personally from game to game…
"I definitely think it helps just being comfortable going forward. I would say it definitely boosted my confidence going forward to these next games."

On opening play…
"Yeah, it was a play, I haven't really shown it yet. I think that really kicked things off, just got the energy going in the building which made us go in on defense."

SOPHOMORE FORWARD DJ HOGG
On how it feels to have a conference win…
"It feels great. 0-3 was a tough start, so to finally get one under our belt and the way we did and just the joy we had together doing it, it was amazing, so hopefully we can keep it rolling."

On if Texas A&M was taking out frustration for past three games…
"You could say that. We were definitely the better team, so we just had to go out and play like it, watch our turnovers, play smart basketball, and we came out with a pretty easy win, but they fought. They gave us a good fight, so we take our hats off to them."

On if having fun was what's been missing…
"Well we can't really have fun when we're losing, so considering that, that helped a lot, but mainly it was cut down on turnovers, execute on offense, play solid defense and we'll be tough to beat, and we did that tonight. Even with a couple of us in foul trouble, the bench came in and played really well, and we just came out on top."

LSU HEAD COACH JOHNNY JONES
Opening statement...
"We knew coming in it would be a tough battle for us tonight against a team that was sitting there. Their record is certainly not indicative of the type of team that they are. They are sitting there 0-3 in the league. They had an opportunity to come back home and perform. I thought they played as a team that was feeling and seeking and searching and opportunity to win. We are a team that is searching as well. We are certainly a ways away from where we need to be and where we want to be. We have a lot of work to do. You have to credit Texas A&M. They did a fine job executing and making plays. They had exceptional second half shooting. There is a long way to go and we have to make sure that we figure it out, but we are certainly a ways away from it right now."

On Texas A&M leading…
"We were missing shots and missing free throws. We had free throw opportunities that could have kept the score close. I thought [Texas A&M] did a good job of shooting it there in the first half and making plays. They had second chance opportunities and did a good job of rebounding the basketball, getting the offensive rebounds and put backs. Their second chance points and opportunities hurt us as well. They have good depth and have good guys that come off the bench and can make plays. They have a number of guys that were on the Sweet Sixteen team last year and that experience definitely showed."