Texas A&M bounces back, overwhelms undersized St. Francis, 81-58

A little more than six minutes into the game on Wednesday night, Texas A&M freshman Robert Williams broke open on the baseline and leaped to receive a high-pass.

Unable to handle the pass cleanly, Williams settled for a mere dunk rather than a spectacular alley-oop.

That qualified as defense for St. Francis, which was woefully overmatched as A&M put on a festival of dunks and three-pointers in an 81-58 victory at Reed Arena.

Bouncing back strong from a frustrating, 67-63 loss to Arizona on Saturday, the Aggies hit 10 three-pointers, converted their first 13 free throw attempts, shot 50.9 percent from the field (29 of 57), accumulated 21 assists and out-rebounded their visitors from Pennsylvania, 42-26.

“We just wanted to play better,” said guard JC Hampton, who converted a four-point play early in the first half and almost got another one later. “We talk about us and doing the small things to be an elite team. We focused on that in this game.”

D.J. Hogg converted five of seven shots from three-point range for a game-high 15 points to lead five Aggies in double figures.

Tyler Davis had 14 points, while Robert Williams, Admon Gilder and Hampton all scored 10.

St. Francis (3-8), which shot just 24.1 percent in the decisive first half, was led by guard Keith Braxton and forward Josh Nebo, from Houston’s Cypress Lakes High School, with 10 points each.

“I thought we moved the ball offensively and were a little more patient,” A&M coach Billy Kennedy said. “We just overwhelmed St. Francis. That’s what we’re supposed to do. At least we did it for two halves instead of one half like we’ve done before.

“Our guys came off a loss, and we got better. We really emphasized moving the ball and being patient.

"We still had more turnovers (15) than I’d like, but I thought DJ Hogg was much better. JC Hampton was more aggressive and played well early on.”

In their final tuneup before opening Southeastern Conference play against Tennessee on Dec. 29, the Aggies settled the issue early.

A&M roared out to a 20-4 lead, built the margin to 30 points and eventually led 46-19 at halftime.

St. Francis was only that close because Braxton hit a three-pointer at the buzzer.

A&M’s lead never dipped below 20 points in the second half.

Overall, the Aggies shot better than they had all season from the perimeter. The 10 three-pointers comprised a season-high. So did the 52.6 shooting percentage from beyond the arc.

“We shoot well,” Hogg said. “We’re very capable. Everybody but Tyler shoots the 3-ball well. Tyler does, too, in practice when he’s messing around.

“We shoot well. We’ve just had a bumpy road, and we’re working out some kinks.”

St. Francis had been competitive in a 78-65 loss to Marquette in Milwaukee on Monday, but coach Rob Krimmel knew his team was in trouble when A&M began hitting threes.

“Marquette was an excellent shooting team. They have a couple of guys shooting over 40 percent 3-from the three-point line, but they weren’t as big,” Krimmel said. “We knew coming in A&M, with their size, would try to put the ball on the block and make us pay for our lack of size.

“We tried to take away their inside game. When they’re hitting threes like that, it’s certainly a challenging defensive assignment for our guys.”

The challenge for A&M was to overcome any frustration from the loss to Arizona and go into the Christmas break with momentum from a strong performance.

Mission accomplished.

“We knew we didn’t play well against Arizona, especially for 25, 30 minutes,” Kennedy said. “This group is a good group of good kids. They want to play well and please. Sometimes, they’re too nice. I thought they didn’t want to go home with a bad taste in their mouths. To go home and feel like they played well is good.”