Men's Basketball Topped by Bulldogs, 93-81

Tuesday, February 20

College Station

6 p.m.

Texas A&M

17-11, 6-9SEC

Mississippi State

20-8, 8-7SEC

Mississippi State

Texas A&M

Photo by: Spencer Gnauck/Texas A&M Athletics

Feb 20, 2018 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box (PDF)

By: Associated Press/Texas A&M Media Relations

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP)-- Abdul Ado scored 19 points and Mississippi State defeated Texas A&M 93-81 on Tuesday night.

The Aggies, ranked 21st last week, dropped out of the rankings this week following consecutive road losses at Missouri and Arkansas. MSU overwhelmed A&M in points off turnovers (19-5) and bench points (23-6).

The Bulldogs (20-8, 8-7 Southeastern Conference) improved to 2-7 in SEC road games, while the Aggies (17-11, 6-9) fell to 5-3 at home against league competition.

Bulldog forward Aric Holman was questionable for Tuesday's game after hurting his knee on Saturday in a victory over Mississippi, but played 19 minutes and contributed 13 points and five rebounds. Quinndary Weatherspoon added 17 points as five Bulldogs scored in double figures

A&M center Tyler Davis led all scorers with 25 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. TJ Starks added 19 points.

RECORDS / SERIES NOTES

Texas A&M fell to Mississippi State, 93-81, on Tuesday night at Reed Arena in College Station … the Aggies' record on the season now stands at 17-11 with a 6-9 record in SEC play.
The MSU win leaves the all-time series at 6-5 in favor of Texas A&M.

TEAM NOTES

Texas A&M shot 50.8 percent (30-for-59) for the game, while Mississippi State shot 45.6 percent (31-of-68) … However, the Bulldogs went 23-of-29 from the free throw line (79.3 percent) while the Aggies were 16-of-28 (57.1 percent) from the charity stripe.
A&M used the starting lineup combination of TJ Starks, Admon Gilder, DJ Hogg, Robert Williams and Tyler Davis for the eighth time this season (4-4).

INDIVIDUAL NOTES

Junior Tyler Davis tied his career-high with 25 points and pulled down 11 rebounds to register his 10^thdouble-double of the season (16^th career) … the performance also left Davis with 1,245 points during his three-year
career and left him in sole possession of 16^th on A&M's all-time scoring list … the 11 rebounds also moved Davis into 13^th place on the school's rebounding list.
Freshman TJ Starks added 19 points giving the freshman from Dallas at least 17 points in three of his last four games.
Robert Williams (11 points), Admon Gilder (10) and DJ Hogg (10) also reached double-digits for Texas A&M.
Aggie head coach Billy Kennedy fell to 132-95 during his seven-year tenure at Texas A&M and 343-274 in 20 seasons as a head coach.

UP NEXT

The Aggies are back on the road this weekend as they travel to Nashville, Tenn., to face Vanderbilt inside Memorial Gym ... the game will tip off at 3 p.m. and be televised by ESPN or ESPN2.

Texas A&M Basketball
Postgame Quotes
Mississippi State 93, Texas A&M 81
Feb. 20, 2018 ? Reed Arena (College Station, Texas)

TEXAS A&M HEAD COACH BILLY KENNEDY
Opening Statement…
"Obviously, we are disappointed in the loss and disappointed in giving up 93 points again in back-to-back games with 94 and 93 points. We lost our defensive identity for whatever reason. We are struggling to make the tough play on the defensive end of the floor, and that is my responsibility. I have to do a better job of getting us prepared to play on the defensive end. I am not taking anything away from Mississippi State. Their guards were hard to defend, and we couldn't keep them out of the lane. Their athleticism really gave us a lot of problems, and they have a good team."

On A&M's defense…
"In our ball screen coverage, we would never shift over and protect the basket. Their roll guy seemed to make every play late. We wouldn't physically get him out of the way, and they got layups off of that which hurt us a bunch. (Mississippi State) did a better job in the second half, and we got behind. It's hard to play zone when you are behind 10 or 11 points. I'll take responsibility for (the defense) because we spend more time working on the offensive end because we had been missing a lot of shots. We got away from defense in practice."

On moving forward and making changes…
"Our team has changed again, and we are adjusting. Our rotations on how we are playing and who we are playing have changed, but we should never lose our defensive mindset. I think we can get it back because it is not too far gone, and it is part of what we do. We have to make it more of an effort. Then we have to go out and do it. It takes effort. This time of the year, tough people make tough teams advance. It's hard. Nothing is new anymore. Teams are tired. Teams are scouted, and guys are beat up. You have to be able to push through it, and that is one thing we have to be able to do a better job of."

TEXAS A&M JUNIOR CENTER Tyler Davis
On if the team was worn out going into the second half…
"No we weren't worn out, we just weren't putting forth the effort on defense and on the glass. They beat us by 13 rebounds, so it is just effort at that point."

On why effort is a problem this time in the year…
"You have to have a certain togetherness to play defense, and when you don't have that you can't play defense at a high level. If you aren't going to play together, not talk and not just worry about your man, then you are not going to win games."

On why the team doesn't have togetherness at this point…
"You know, I am not really sure. I think we are too worried about offense. I think we need to go back to making the game simple and just hanging our hats on defense again. We at one point were one of the top defensive teams in the nation, and it is not that we can't go back to doing that, it just takes doing what we learned all summer."

MISSISSIPPI STATE HEAD COACH BEN HOWLAND
Opening Statement…
"I thought we did a great job tonight. Initially to start the game, our defense was really stifling, but they made a tremendous push. They cut our lead of 11 to two, so credit them for cutting that lead. We were playing really well. When you look at us offensively tonight, I thought we did a great job on the boards. I think they are the leading rebounding team in our conference, and we beat them by 13 on the glass. That was huge. Another factor is not turning the ball over and making our foul shots. We shot it well from the three again. We did a really nice job of managing the game down the stretch. I'm just really proud of our players because this a huge win for us to come on the road and get an RPI win of 21. Their RPI is tremendous, so this really helps us towards our goal of getting to the NCAA tournament."

On their offense moving forward…
"We did a much better job of attacking the zone in the second half. These guys are making such great extra passes. We had 19 assists on our 31 baskets made. That says a lot right there. Our guys are very confident right now. They are putting a lot of time into shooting. They are shooting it really well. We expect to shoot how we've been shooting, and I expect that we will the rest of the way for sure."

On Tyler Davis…
"Abdul (Ado) was going against one of my favorite players in the league as an opponent. These guys will tell you that I love Tyler Davis, and he delivered tonight. Tyler Davis is really a good player."