Aggies Edge Out Islanders, 63-60

Sunday, December 15

College Station

5:00 PM

Texas A&M

4-5,0-0SEC

A&M-Corpus Christi

4-6,0-0Southland

A&M-Corpus Christi

Texas A&M

Photo by: Craig Bisacre/Texas A&M Athletics

Dec 15, 2019 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Evan Roberts, Texas A&M Athletics Communications

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) Emanuel Miller scored 20 points and Texas A&M erased a double-digit deficit in the second half and beat Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 63-60 on Sunday night.

After trailing by 11 two minutes into the second half, the Aggies (4-5) snatched back the lead 48-47 on an alley-oop slam dunk by Josh Nebo on a perfect lob from Andre Gordon with 8:53 left in the game.

The teams then traded leads before the last minute of action put a scattering of fans in Reed Arena on the edges of their seats. Gordon made two free throws with 35 seconds remaining to lift the Aggies to a 60-58 lead, and Savion Flagg made the first of two free throws with nine seconds remaining to help put away the relentless Islanders.

The Islanders' Jashawn Talton was called for traveling following his rebound of Flagg's miss on the second free throw and the Aggies escaped with the victory.

The Islanders (4-6) jumped to a 31-24 halftime lead thanks to 18 points from Jordan Hairston, and he wound up with 25 points. The freshman guard made 6 of 7 from the field in the first half, with all the offerings from 3-point range.

The Aggies return to Reed Arena on Saturday with a 7:30 p.m. matchup against Oregon State.

Texas A&M Men's Basketball Postgame Notes
Texas A&M 63, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 60
Reed Arena (College Station, Texas)

RECORDS & SERIES NOTES

Texas A&M edged out Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 63-60, Sunday at Reed Arena to move to 4-5 on the season.
The Aggies are now 6-1 all-time against the Islanders.

TEAM NOTES

The Aggies shot a productive 47.8% (11-of-23) from the field, outscoring the Islanders, 39-29 in the second half.
Texas A&M had four players with 10-or-more points for the first time this season.
Texas A&M had a season-high 17 second-chance points off 13 offensive rebounds.
The Maroon & White tied a season low in turnovers with 12, last set against Fairfield (12/1/19).
A&M made a season high 18 free-throws.
Texas A&M used the starting lineup combination of Savion Flagg, Quenton Jackson, Emanuel Miller, Mark French, and Josh Nebo for the first time this season (1-0).

INDIVIDUAL NOTES

Emanuel Miller led the Aggies in scoring posting a career-high 20 points, the most scored by a freshman since 2018 when TJ starks tallied 21 against North Carolina (3/18/18).
Miller's 20 points came from an efficient 87.5% (7-of-8) from the field and a perfect 6-of-6 from the charity stripe.
Josh Nebo led the team with 13 rebounds, the most during his tenure at Texas A&M. The Houston native added 13 points, posting his 15^th career double-double.
Jay Jay Chandler added 11 points, marking his 20^th career game with 10-or-more points.
Savion Flagg grabbed a season-high eight rebounds.
Buzz Williams is 4-5 in his first season at Texas A&M and 257-160 in his 13 seasons as a head coach.

UP NEXT

The Aggies host Oregon State on Saturday, December 21 at Reed Arena. Tip is set for 7:30 p.m.

Texas A&M Quotes
Head Coach Buzz Williams
On the importance of free throws…
"I do think that we do an above average job of getting fouled. We're probably top 35 in the country in getting fouled, and top 35 in not fouling. We haven't been quite as consistent as you need to be when you have to score the way we need points. We haven't emphasized it any different than we have from the beginning of practice. Our free-throw shooting is maybe what you would call a drill or a game. It lasts two minutes. It's what I've done my whole career. I learned it from an old school coach. It's a very efficient use of time, and it gained some traction with our guys. It's called 6-7-8; you have to make six in a row, then make seven in a row, then make eight in a row in a two-minute span, and there's consequences to not doing that. So anytime you may hear our kids from the bench hollering 6-7-8, it's because that's the free throw game that we do throughout each practice."

On Emanuel Miller's recent performances…
"In the last two weeks, and in the last two games, he and [Josh] Nebo have established a distinct role. It's a role that we're dependent on. 33 points and 19 rebounds. That's very efficient. I think that's the most points that a freshman has scored here at a while, and last week was the most rebounds a freshman had had in a while. I'm encouraged for sure about both of those guys. We need to somehow figure out how we can keep those guys trending in that direction, and then find some other guys to establish those types of roles relative to their responsibilities."

On Wendell Mitchell's decreased playing time…
"He was the most positive guy on the bench from start to finish. I said that to him three times in the locker room. I could hear his voice the whole time. I think I've said it publicly, and I've for sure said it privately to our team. The intent of his heart, 1,000-percent, is for Texas A&M. In that stretch of five turnovers, he had two of them. Then in the second half, because we're down 11, and because we're not turning it over, I didn't even play him. And the whole second half, he's the most positive guy. Again, it just speaks to how he was raised. He's a guy that I want to play, and entering tonight's game, I think he had played more minutes than anybody else. I want to play him, but at some point we've got to quit turning the ball over. And at some point, we've got to get more opportunities at the rim. And Eman [Emanuel Miller] has given us more opportunities, along with what [Josh] Nebo has done. That moves Savion [Flagg] full-time to the perimeter, except for the few minutes that the Eman hasn't played the last two games. And so there's less minutes on the perimeter. But as far as his spirit, and who he is, and what he's about, I have the utmost respect."

Guard Jay Jay Chandler
On how crucial this win was…
"We needed it pretty bad. It's been a while since we won one. In the locker room we discussed it, but it's been since November, 20. Every game matters now, so we just got to go out there and try to keep collecting more in that win column."

On how he feels his team is two games away from conference play…
"We still have some work to do. I'm not saying we're 100-percent, but we just have work to do. Take it one day at a time, come into practice with the right focus and the right mindset to get better each and every day. And just take it from there. The coaches are going to come up with the game plans at the end of the day, and we just have to follow those, and just go out there and play, and give it our all. We just have to work together and try to get more wins."

Forward Emanuel Miller
On the importance of free throws…
"I believe collectively as a group going down the stretch, you want to hit shots to extend the lead. I believe each single person on this team, collectively thought to just extend at the end of the game, especially down the stretch. That was to hit free throws, and I think we did a good job of that."

On the mindset when they were down by double-digits…
"There wasn't a panic, just more of an urgency to fight. We know that being down 11 at home, our crowd is going to be right behind us, and our coaches are going to be behind us. We have all the support in the world right now, and we know that being down 11 just gives us another opportunity to fight. And that's what me and my teammates did."

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Quotes
Head Coach Willis Wilson
Opening Statement…
"I'm really disappointed for our guys. I felt like we really play well enough to win. I think the difference was down the stretch; I thought A&M did a really good job of just trusting in the things that they do. Basketball is more like chess than it is checkers and you really got to know your chess piece. You don't ask your pawn to do things that you need your bishop to do. I thought they did a really solid job of just knowing who they are when they needed to. I thought for us our execution wasn't really what it needed to be. Now, give them a little credit, they really had a stretch where they hurt us on the offensive last second-shot opportunities. We fouled at the rim for some three-point plays. They stepped up tonight and made their free throws. We didn't. That was really the difference in my opinion. We just didn't make free throws on a night where we really needed them desperately."

On their three-point opportunities in tonight's performance…
"I'm a big kind of a numbers guy but I've never been a guy that just wanted to live and die with the three-point shot. The reality is the three-point shot has a much heavier weighted value than the two. When you're small like we are, you got to do what you do. We've got some guys that can shoot it. We need Nolan Bertain to make some shots. Tonight he kind of struggled for us. We needed Jashawn Thomas to make some shots. Typically those guys are arguably our best three-point shooters and Jordan Harrison is an excellent three-point shooter. Those three guys though on any given day, you can give any one of them the ball and they can do the same thing that Jordan did tonight. We just need a couple of those guys to do it on the same night"

On their performance in the last four minutes…
"A little bit of a trust thing, when you are in a situation where you have few guys as we have that have played Division I basketball, every night is a learning process. We got eight guys coming in the year that never played Division I basketball, three more that played very very little, three more than just played some, and a couple of those guys were out last year. My belief coming in the year was that it's going to take us 8-10 games, maybe 12 games, to kind of figure things out. You throw some injuries into that mix we've kind of been dealing with a little bit that process becomes a little bit slower, and so I am proud of our guys for the way they played. I'm disappointed for our guys in two things, one in the loss and then two we just didn't have the staying power to execute the way we needed to down the stretch."