Aggies falter in title game
SEC runner-up can’t repeat effort from week before against Crimson Tide
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A little more than one week — and an entirely different setting — made all the difference in Texas A&M vs. Alabama.
Eight days after losing at second-seeded A&M in the regular season finale, topseeded Alabama defeated the Aggies 82-63 on Sunday afternoon in the SEC tournament title game in Bridgestone Arena before a mostly crimson-clad crowd.
Nashville is about 250 miles from Tuscaloosa, Ala., and more than three times as far from College Station. The Aggies (25-9) also were a long way from keeping it close in a rowdy finale in downtown Nashville.
“We have to put our emotions behind us and start thinking about the future, and what’s next for us as a program (in the NCAA Tournament),” said guard Dexter Dennis, who led the cold-shooting Aggies with 14 points. “We have to have a short memory in this situation.”
A&M, which made consecutive tournament title games for the first time in 36 years, lost for the second straight season. A year ago Tennessee defeated A&M by 15 points in Tampa, Fla.
A stark example of the Aggies’ frustrations Sunday occurred about midway through the second half, when Alabama (29-5) grabbed three consecutive offensive rebounds with the last resulting in a foul on A&M guard Wade Taylor IV and two made free throws by Alabama star forward Brandon Miller, named the tournament’s most valuable player.
“It was just a different atmosphere, a totally different game for a championship,” Taylor said of the tale of two games played on consecutive weekends. “Credit to Alabama, they played good defense and we couldn’t get in rhythm like we normally do.”
Added A&M coach Buzz Williams: “The thing that hurt us was (Alabama’s) offensive rebounds, and we did a better job last (time) against Alabama specifically. … Our identity has evolved and morphed into a lot of good things over the last couple of months. (But) we did not play to that exactly the way we needed to today.”
Alabama had 21 offensive rebounds on Sunday compared to 15 in the previous meeting. The Crimson Tide, the regular season champions under fourthyear coach Nate Oats, salted away their second SEC tournament title in three years with consecutive 3pointers by Noah Clowney and Miller with about seven minutes remaining in shoving Alabama to a 6448 lead.
Miller, a likely NBA draft lottery selection this summer, led all scorers with 23 points, including two that came on a gravitydefying dunk on a fast break with 3:48 left certain to be on Miller’s college highlight reel. For its part A&M shot 30 percent (19 of 64) overall from the floor in never cutting Alabama’s lead to less than eight points in an anticlimactic second half.
The Aggies, who’ve won 10 of their last 12 games, quickly turned their attention to Sunday night’s NCAA Tournament announcement, in making the NCAA postseason for the first time in five years and first time under Williams, who’s in his fourth year at A&M.
“We’ll have to be better regardless of who we play this week,” Williams said of the Aggies’ upcoming tasks in the postseason that counts most and culminates in Houston in the Final Four early next month.
The Aggies were trying to win their first conference tournament since 1987, when they competed in the Southwest Conference under coach Shelby Metcalf. Taylor was one of six players to make the alltournament team, but was 3-of-11 from the floor in the finale.
“We had only seen Texas A&M one time before this game, we didn’t underestimate them (the first time) but we didn’t come out with the right energy (then) against their guards in particular,” Alabama guard Jahvon Quinerly said. “I wanted to make sure Wade didn’t do what he’s been doing all weekend, and that was just a big emphasis from coach Oats, to stop (Tyrece) Radford and Wade, and it benefited us in the end.”
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