Aggies rally for 8th straight
Coleman leads comeback from early 12-0 deficit
Texas A&M hosts blue blood Kentucky on Wednesday night in a game that already has been hyped around College Station. But for about half of their game at Missouri on Saturday, the Aggies didn’t appear to be paying enough attention to their SEC road contest before the No. 18 Wildcats’ visit.
The forward-thinking Aggies sprang back into the present in time for a 67-64 comeback victory over the Tigers, setting up a showdown against Kentucky at Reed Arena.
“We’re not good enough to already be talking about Wednesday,” A&M coach Buzz Williams said with a slight smile after Saturday’s nail-biting victory.
A&M won its eighth consecutive game, this time after earning its first lead with a little less than five minutes to play.
Despite winning 15 of their first 17 games, the Aggies haven’t been getting votes in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, and on Saturday that came dangerously close to not changing any time soon for Williams’ third A&M squad.
“We didn’t play Texas A&M basketball; we weren’t playing with a lot of energy and a lot of fight,” A&M forward Henry Coleman III said of the Aggies’ first half. “(But) this was a test that we needed. Playing in the SEC and playing on the road, every (time) it’s going to be hard.”
A&M trailed the Tigers 12-0 before many of the few fans on hand in Columbia, Mo., had found their seats at Mizzou Arena, and the Aggies (15-2, 4-0 SEC) didn’t crack the scoreboard until nearly 11 minutes remained in the first half.
“The resolve and resiliency that we played with in the second half was completely different,” Williams said.
Meantime, the wild ride of the Tigers (7-9, 1-3) continues. Missouri was coming off a 44-point loss at Arkansas on Wednesday, but just before that had defeated then-No. 15 Alabama by six points behind 30 points from forward Kobe Brown.
Brown mustered only seven points against the Aggies, who were led by Coleman’s 18 points. Brown also missed the front end of a one-onone with 51 seconds remaining and the Aggies clinging to a 63-61 lead.
The Aggies had gone up by two just before Brown’s free throw miss on a layup by Tyrece Radford after a spin move into the lane.
A&M, one of the SEC’s worst free throw shooting teams, has shown the ability to make them when they count.
They made four in the final minute Saturday, including two by Andre Gordon with 31 seconds left and two by Hassan Diarra with three seconds remaining.
“I work on free throws every day, and when a big moment comes the work always comes out,” said Diarra, who’s making 61 percent (19 of 31) of his free throws this season. “I embrace those moments.”
As for the Aggies failing to score over the game’s first nine minutes before getting their act together?
“Offensively we started off pretty bad,” Diarra admitted. “We couldn’t make a shot. But in the second half we started playing … more unselfish. This (shows) the fight in us, and the way the coaches prepare us for games. We’re ready for any opponent.”
Williams in turn praised his valuable reserve, Diarra, for inspiring the team when the Aggies needed it most: with the game on the line.
“I trust him with my life,” Williams said of the sophomore guard from Queens, N.Y., who played 16 minutes against the Tigers. “He was a big part of the tide changing. … He just has that ‘Winner DNA’ gene — it’s just in him. When it’s a fight (on the court) and being able to absorb a blow and dish out a blow, I want ‘Hass’ on the floor.”
The Aggies already have won twice as many SEC games as they did last year, when they finished 2-8 in league contests with a schedule shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic. A&M did not play Kentucky last season.
“We have a lot of fight,” Coleman pledged, “and a lot of will to win.”