Aggies wind up win streak to 7, stay unbeaten in SEC
COLLEGE STATION — Three games into SEC play, Texas A&M already has won more league games than it did all last season.
The Aggies defeated Mississippi 67-51 on Tuesday night before 6,053 at Reed Arena to continue the program’s resurgence under third-year coach Buzz Williams.
A&M (14-2, 3-0 SEC) has won its first three league games for the first time since 2016, when the Aggies made the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament behind future NBA players Alex Caruso and Danuel House Jr.
The red-hot Aggies on Tuesday shot 56 percent from the field (29 of 52) compared to 35 percent by the Rebels (18 of 52). Undersized A&M, which relies heavily on a handful of playmaking guards, also overwhelmed Ole Miss in points in the paint (4224).
Sophomore forward Henry Coleman III led the Aggies with 18 points, while guard Matthew Murrell paced the Rebels with 11 points.
“Overall on offense we were pretty good tonight,” Coleman said of A&M’S seventh straight victory. “There was just a rhythm and we’re a team that’s capable of doing that.”
The Aggies play their second SEC road game Saturday at Missouri (7-7, 1-1), which travels to Arkansas on Wednesday. A&M opened league play with an 81-79 victory at Georgia on Jan. 4 before defeating Arkansas 86-81 in Reed last Saturday.
A&M finished 2-8 in SEC play a year ago in a season shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Aggies were 10-8 in SEC competition two years ago in Williams’ first season following his hire from Virginia Tech, but the remainder of the campaign was canceled entering the SEC tournament in Nashville, Tenn., because of the then-burgeoning pandemic.
A&M is trying to make its first postseason appearance under the Van Alstyne native. Williams led Marquette to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament in 2013 and Virginia Tech to the Sweet 16 in March 2019 before returning to his home state that spring to take the job with the Aggies.
Coleman helped propel A&M to a 33-29 halftime lead with 14 points over the first 20 minutes, making seven of his first eight shots from the field.
“In the second half we were much more engaged and played with a lot more energy,” Williams said.
Coleman scored four points the rest of the way as A&M held a double-digit lead for much of the second half.
“We’re still hungry,” Coleman said of the Aggies’ surprisingly solid start. “We’ve got 24 hours to celebrate and then it’s on to the next team. That’s the mindset of our team.”
A&M was picked to finish 12th out of the league’s 14 teams in a preseason media poll — three spots behind Mississippi.
Former A&M coach Kermit Davis, 62, is in his fourth season coaching the Rebels (9-6, 1-2). Davis exited A&M a little more than 30 years ago following a lone season that landed the Aggies in NCAA hot water.
Following his 8-21 finish in 1990-91, the Aggies were placed on two years of probation because of a handful of NCAA violations during Davis’s brief tenure. He revived his career at Middle Tennessee State, where he made the round of 32 of the NCAAS in two of his final three seasons with the Blue Raiders (2016 and 2017).
Davis never won a league game in College Station during his one-year stint with the Aggies — his two Southwest Conference victories more than three decades ago came at Texas Tech and Baylor. He still has never won a conference game in College Station following Tuesday’s 16-point setback against his old school.
Williams and his wife, Corey, bought 600 tickets beforehand to give out to fans as A&M continues drawing decent crowds even before students return based on its recent winning ways.
“There’s been a groundswell of support,” Williams said. “And we were just trying to help.”