Men's Basketball Pull Away for 81-65 Win Over Pepperdine

Friday, November 24

College Station

8 p.m.

Texas A&M

Pepperdine

Photo by: Sam Craft/Texas A&M Athletics

Nov 24, 2017 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Highlights Audio: Billy Kennedy - Pepperdine Postgame Audio: Chandler/Wilson - Pepperdine Postgame Texas A&M 81, Pepperdine 65 - Final Stats (PDF)Photos

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) -- DJ Hogg scored 18 points and Tyler Davis had seven of his 15 in a key second-half stretch to lead No. 16 Texas A&M past pesky Pepperdine 81-65 on Friday night.

Kameron Edwards scored 20 points to lead the Waves, who trimmed their deficit to six twice in the second half, the final time with 7:31 remaining. However, after Amadi Udenyi's layup cut the Aggies' lead to 60-54, Pepperdine went 5:35 without a basket and A&M (5-0) pulled away.

Dunks by Hogg and Davis stretched the lead back to 15 after a 15-4 run.

A&M couldn't break inside Pepperdine's zone defense for much of the game, and the Waves (2-4) were content to let the Aggies shoot 3-pointers.

Starting point guard Duane Wilson, a graduate transfer from Marquette, paced the Aggies' 41-28 first-half lead with 10 of his 15 points.

Redshirt freshman point guard J.J. Caldwell made his Aggies debut at the 10:24 mark of the first half. In 10 minutes, the pass-first guard showed the skills A&M had been waiting on with a couple of slick passes and a steal. He finished with four points and three assists in 16 minutes.

POST-GAME NOTES

TOURNAMENT & SERIES NOTES

Texas A&M improved to 5-0 on the season with an 81-65 win over Pepperdine on Friday inside Reed Arena.
The meeting was the first between the schools since 1954 and left the all-time series 2-1 in favor of A&M.

TEAM NOTES

Aggies Robert Williams, DJ Hogg, Tyler Davis and Tonny Trocha-Morelos each contributed multiple blocks to give the team a total of 11 swats, the most by Texas A&M since blocking 12 against Mississippi Valley State in November of 2013.
The Aggies displayed good ball movement in the contest, carding 25 assists on 29 field goals in the contest.
A&M took a 41-28 lead into the intermission.
Texas A&M used the starting lineup combination of Duane Wilson, Admon Gilder, DJ Hogg, Tonny Trocha-Morelos and Tyler Davis for the fourth time this season (4-0).

INDIVIDUAL NOTES

Junior DJ Hogg fell just short of his second career double-double, finishing with 18 points and nine boards while hitting 4-of-9 from 3-point territory … his 18 points led the Aggies, marking the third consecutive game he has paced the team in scoring.
Junior Tyler Davis shook off early shooting woes to finish with 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting, eight rebounds, three steals and two assists.
Sophomore Robert Williams scored just four points in the contest, but contributed seven rebounds and three blocks … the Oil City, La., native also chipped in a game-high and career six assists.
Redshirt freshman JJ Caldwell made his A&M debut vs. the Waves, contributing four points, three assists and a pair of rebounds in 16 minutes of game action.
Billy Kennedy is now 120-85 during his seven-year tenure at Texas A&M and 331-264 in 20 seasons as a head coach.

UP NEXT

The Aggies are back on the road this weekend as they travel to Los Angeles, Calif., where they will face No. 10 USC at the Galen Center ... the game will be broadcast on Pac-12 Network.
A&M will be seeking to match its best start in the Billy Kennedy era against the Trojans and match similar 6-0 starts to begin the 2013-14 & 2015-16 campaigns.

POST-GAME QUOTES

TEXAS A&M HEAD COACH BILLY KENNEDY
Opening Statement…
"Obviously, we are thankful we got the win. I thought Pepperdine gave us some problems with the undersized four man. We had a hard time guarding (Kameron Edwards). I thought our energy wasn't very good at times, but when it needed to be we raised it up a level at the end. Winning two big games, you have to be able to come home and play. We didn't play like a veteran team. I thought we played down to their level at times, but I am not taking anything away from Pepperdine because I thought they played hard and did a lot of good things."

On returning home...
"If you want to be really good, you have to be good every day. I thought we let the hype of the tournament (get to us). We were excited about that, but we weren't as excited today as we were in those games. That can't happen or you will get beat, but it is part of the growing process with this team. We have so many new parts, and we really have a young team overall. We have had a tough schedule when you go to Germany and then turn around and go to New York and play in that kind of an atmosphere with that kind of emotion. Some of it is reality, but you want to get to a point where you don't let that have an effect on you. I thought it had an effect on us more than I would have liked."

On JJ Caldwell's debut…
"I thought JJ Caldwell played some good minutes. He did some good things for us. I thought he was excited to play and tried to play within himself. He is a really good passer and makes plays for other people. For us to have 25 assists, that is pretty good no matter who you are playing. Offensively, I like the unselfishness of this team."

On when Pepperdine cut the lead to six...
"We played more with a sense of urgency when they cut it down (to six]. I also played the older guys. We went with the veterans that have been playing well together, and I thought that was part of us moving the ball offensively."

On upcoming game against USC...
"We are a different team (than last year), which I think is a good thing. If we play like we played tonight we will get beat. You can't go out there and play like a tired team. We have to be able to manage the environment and situation. We are playing a true road game on their home court which is different than playing on a neutral court. I expect our effort to be a lot better."

PEPPERDINE HEAD COACH MARTY WILSON

Opening statement...
"First of all, they are a really good team, and the biggest team that we are going to play this year. We have some teams in our league that are pretty big, so hopefully this type of game prepares us for that. I think they have a lot of weapons offensively and defensively where they are a tough matchup for probably everyone in the country because of their size. They are very unselfish. Their guys do a good job of looking for each other, sharing the ball, and executing. We knew that was going to be our challenge, their size against our size. Their physicality against ours. I think that was the key thing. We had too many turnovers that led to their points. When we do a better job of that, we have more confidence and more opportunities to score the ball. I think it carried over at times in the second half."

On the Waves' defense...
"We wanted to double team them at times and we wanted shrink the floor and dig to mix it up and make their bigs play. We knew their size was a disadvantage with (Robert) Williams and (Tyler) Davis. That was our thought initially, but once we got into a zone I thought we slowed them down and took some time off the clock where it made them get out of their comfort zone. I think that is what they do best when people man them. They overpower you with their athleticism. We wanted to mix it up, but our zone was pretty good at times."

On getting within six points...
"I think part of it is getting stops defensively. We preach that because there are going to be times where our shots aren't going or their shots aren't going. Sometimes you can't control that, but when you get stops you gain confidence or when you get shots you gain confidence. I think it was a combination of both of those. I thought we got some stops in crucial moments. I thought our guys did a good job of battling on the boards. I thought we made some good plays."

Gig 'em!

No. 16 Texas A&M proves to be too much for Pepperdine, defeating the Waves 81-65 pic.twitter.com/Uzh4UhCsyy
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