Texas A&M
5-1,0-0SEC
Wofford
3-3,0-0SoCon
Aggies Topple Wofford, 70-52
Dec 21, 2020 | Men's Basketball
BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) -- Emanuel Miller had 16 points and eight rebounds, freshman Hassan Diarra added 14 points and Texas A&M beat Wofford 70-52 on Monday.
Diarra beat the halftime buzzer with a 3-pointer from the wing to give Texas A&M a 29-28 lead, and the Aggies led the rest of the way. Wofford was within 55-46 but Texas A&M answered with a 12-0 run - with scoring from four different players - to seal it.
Miller, who has three double-doubles with at least 20 points this season, made 10 of 13 free throws. The Aggies went to the line 35 times compared to Wofford's 4-of-19 shooting at the stripe
Jay Jay Chandler added 10 points for Texas A&M (5-1), which is scheduled to play LSU on Dec. 29. He was helped off the court with 13:37 left in the second half after hitting his head on the floor. Savion Flagg, averaging 10 points, 6.8 rebounds and a team-high 3.6 assists, did not play.
Texas A&M trailed 15-3 after Wofford made its first five 3-pointers. The Terriers were 8 of 16 from distance in the first half, and finished 12 of 34.
Freshman Max Klesmit scored 14 points, making four 3-pointers, for Wofford (3-3). B.J. Mack, averaging 8.4 points and 5.2 rebounds, did not play.
Texas A&M Men's Basketball Postgame Notes
Texas A&M 70, Wofford 52
Reed Arena (Bryan-College Station, Texas)
RECORDS & SERIES NOTES
- Texas A&M defeated Wofford, 70-52, Monday afternoon at Reed Arena.
- The Aggies lead the series 1-0 all time.
- Texas A&M finished its home non-conference slate undefeated (5-0) for the first time since the 2017-18 season.
TEAM NOTES
- After being down 15-3 at the 16:39 mark of the opening stanza, the Aggies went on a 12-0 run over the next 8:42 to tie the game. With time expiring, Hassan Diarra hit a 3-pointer to give the Aggies their first lead of the game and a 29-28 advantage at half.
- At the 7:17 point of the second half, A&M extended their 55-46 lead after going on a 12-0 scoring run which lasted just over three minutes.
- A&M turned the ball over 11 times, the lowest amount in a game this season.
- The Aggies shot 35 free throws, the second highest mark of the season.
- In the paint, the Maroon & White outscored Wofford 28-12.
- Texas A&M used the starting lineup combination of Jay Jay Chandler, Andre Gordon, Quenton Jackson, Kevin Marfo and Emanuel Miller and (1-0) for the first time this season.
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
- Emanuel Miller led the Aggies in points (16), rebounds (8) and assists (3). His scoring performance marks his fourth in the last five games with 15-or-more points.
- Miller shot 10-of-13 from the line, bringing his free throw percentage to 80% on the year.
- Hassan Diarra tied his season-high with 14 points, shooting an efficient 6-of-9 from the field and 2-of-3 from three.
- Kevin Marfo scored a season-high nine points, along with a steal and a block. Marfo shot 5-of-6 from the line, the most free throws made this season.
- Jay Jay Chandler hit double-digits in scoring with 10 points for the 26th time in his career. Chandler also grabbed a season-high six rebounds.
- Andre Gordon shot a perfect 4-of-4, including one 3-pointer, to end with nine points.
- Buzz Williams is 21-15 in his career at Texas A&M and 274-170 in his 14 seasons as a head coach.
UP NEXT
Texas A&M begins conference play at LSU on Tuesday, December 29. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. on SEC Network.
Texas A&M Quotes
Head Coach Buzz Williams
On the challenge that Wofford presented…
"They (Wofford) are a very prolific offense. They're top-20 in many of the statistical categories. I think the stat that's most unique to Wofford is that, entering today's game, 51 percent of their shots had come from three. That's obviously a very high number. And then, 52 percent of their points had come from three, which is a very stressful combination defensively. Our defense tries to force opponents into shooting as many threes as possible, and we were able to do a lot of that today."
On the team's improvement over the last year…
"I noticed that we played Oregon State a year ago, either today or tomorrow. I think there's some of that same, 'oh, it came to life in this game.' I think that relative to our progress in year number two, today was obviously a little bit different. The things that were required of us became evident, and our guys knew that they had to do well to pass the figurative final exam at the end of this semester. Now our guys go into a few days off, so can they come back and start from this point, or are we going to have to retake the same tests? I would say that today's victory is emotionally similar to how we felt after the Oregon State game last year around this time."
On preparing for the first conference game against LSU…
"I think that every coach would say this to some degree, relative to all of the things that have transpired. When I was training this morning, I was explaining how today was such an important game for us, because we are behind. We're behind relative to our number of practices. We're behind relative to the number of games that we would have at this point in a normal season. That applies to all of the teams. I just think that there's a process that we follow that takes time. There's no way that we can magically skip time relative to the priorities and things that we think are important. Do I think we're ready for conference play? No. Do I understand that our next game is conference? Yes. Am I encouraged by what's transpired in the last two-and-a-half days? Absolutely."
Senior Guard Jay Jay Chandler
On the value of today's win…
"This win was very big for everyone on the team. It gives us a little bit of momentum to go into conference play. Finishing off the first few games of the season on a positive note is important. We hit most, if not all, of the checkpoints that the coaches asked for us to complete. We're just going to use this momentum and take what we learned from this game to continue fixing our mistakes and help us play well when we get back from the break."
On Texas A&M's preparedness for conference play…
"When we return back to campus, we're going to head back into the gym and get back into the flow of things. Whenever we get back, I assume our coaches are going to have a very nice game plan set up for our first conference game. We're going to use that and continue listening with open ears to hear what our coaches have to say. Then it'll be time to get back to work."
Freshman Guard Hassan Diarra
On the team's ability to respond after Wofford's quick start…
"The first five minutes, they (Wofford) hit five-straight threes. They hit a lot of shots against us, but we were able to pick it up on the defensive end. We weren't in rotation as much, so we were able to keep the ball in front of us and contest their shots. That defensive energy fed into our work on the offensive end and we started rolling from there."
On Buzz Williams' energy during games…
"I've had coaches before that had similar energy, but Buzz's energy is on a whole new level. That gives us confidence on the court to play as hard as we can. We feed off of him a lot. We also were able to feed off of ourselves a lot today. Our energy improved a lot after the first five minutes, and it was pretty good after that. We had to feed off ourselves, and we always know that Coach is going to bring a lot of energy to the game as well."
