No. 10 Aggies extend lead in SEC race with 71-57 victory against LSU

So much attention has been paid to heralded LSU freshman Ben Simmons that perhaps some may have forgotten that Texas A&M has some pretty good freshmen, too.

Tyler Davis, Admon Gilder and D.J. Hogg offered some not-so-subtle reminders on Tuesday night.

That trio of freshmen along with Jalen Jones and Alex Caruso and Co. delighted a Reed Arena record crowd of 13,888 with a dominating second half that launched the Aggies to an impressive 71-57 win.

Jones scored a game-high 20 points, while Davis scored 18, Gilder 13 and Hogg six. Caruso added five points and four assists.

The Aggies (16-2, 6-0 SEC) rolled to their ninth consecutive win despite an off night from Danuel House, who managed just five points on 2-of-9 shooting. However, he compensated with 10 rebounds and six assists.

The Aggies were even more impressive on the defensive end.

They held LSU (11-7, 4-2) to just 32.1 percent shooting (9 of 28) in the second half and forced 19 turnovers.

Simmons, who entered the game averaging 20 points and 12.9 rebounds, scored just 10.

Tim Quarterman came off the bench to lead the Tigers with 12 points. Sophomore forward Craig Victor II also had 10.

“I was proud of our guys,” A&M coach Billy Kennedy said. “Danuel didn’t shoot well, but had six assists and 10 rebounds. The bench was the big difference.

“It’s about the team. We’ve said that from last year on. These freshmen came in and bought into it. The culture of winning and sharing the ball and playing hard defensively is taking shape.”

That defensive effort put A&M in great shape in the SEC standings. One-third of the way through the conference schedule, the Aggies remain alone in first place a game-and-a-half ahead of South Carolina, which defeated Ole Miss in overtime on Tuesday night.

The A&M freshmen may have had extra motivation to face Simmons, but Kennedy said that wasn’t necessarily the case.

“We just win. That’s all,” Kennedy said. “We don’t care. Just do your job. Don’t get caught up in the hype or the rankings, just focus on doing your job and the rest will take care of itself.”

LSU trailed just 38-34 at halftime and held a 42-21 lead early in the second half, but faded under the pressure of A&M’s defense.

“We weren’t playing great defense (in the first half),” Davis said. “Coach Kennedy said if we win on defense we can win the game. We just executed, did what Coach said and followed the game plan.”

It worked. The Tigers hit just 1 of 8 three-point attempts in their woeful second half. They had hit five three-pointers in the first half.

“We just didn’t make shots,” LSU coach Johnny Jones said. “We weren’t patient enough to grind it out and make shots. We missed some shots early. We were not allowing ourselves to get in the (shot) clock and make their defense work. And we weren’t rebounding well.”

Part of the problem was that Victor picked up his fourth foul and went to the bench with 16:50 remaining in the game and A&M leading 44-42.

That’s when a close game that was tied 10 times and had eight lead changes swung decidedly in A&M’s favor.

LSU’s Elbert Robinson III hit a short jump hook to tie the score, but LSU managed only one more field goal over the next eight minutes.

Tonny Trocha-Morelos tipped in a Caruso miss to start the pivotal run. By the time Victor re-entered the game A&M had a 57-47 lead.

Then, Hogg immediately hit with a 3-pointer to push the margin to 60-47 at the 8:15 mark.

“Craig’s been playing really solid for us all year,” Jones said. “He’s a force inside for us both offensively and defensively. Without him we did not have what we needed inside. I thought Elbert Robinson gave us some quality minutes, but for Craig to sit that long … we haven’t been used to it. We have to have some other guys make plays.”

The Tigers didn’t.

LSU never got closer than 10 points after that. The Tigers, who had shot extremely well in the second half of late, made just three field goals and a pair of free throws in eight minutes.