Aggies dominate against Marshall in statement win, 92-68

Some changes were in store for the Aggies on Saturday.

T.J. Starks was taken out of the starting lineup and the offense was more inside-oriented.

The greatest change, however, might be the perception of Texas A&M basketball after a surprisingly-dominant 92-68 victory over Marshall at Reed Arena.

It was the most impressive victory of the season for the Aggies (6-4), who now have a five-game winning streak. Suddenly, the question must be asked: Is this a good basketball team?

“One game at a time,” Starks said. “We’re not going to brag on ourselves. We’ll let other people speak for us. If y’all feel like we’re a good team we’ll go with that. If ya’ll think we’re bad team we’ll go with that, too. We’re just going to show up every night.”

The Aggies showed up in a big way against Marshall (6-6), which has four starters from last year’s

team that advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
A&M controlled the paint. The Aggies outscored Marshall 58-24 inside, had 20 second-chance points and held a lopsided 54-30 advantage in rebounds.

”We wanted to get inside,” Kennedy said. “We knew we had an advantage with Christian and Josh. Even John Walker came in and gave us some help.”

A&M seemed to check all the other boxes of its game plan, too.

* A&M played sound defense on the perimeter. Marshall relies heavily on 3-point shooting, but managed to hit only 10 of 35 attempts (28.6 percent) behind the arc. 
A&M shot 81 percent from the free throw line. The Aggies converted 17 of 21 freebies, including 11 of 13 in the second half.

A&M got tremendous  bench production. Starks had 17 points and Josh Nebo had 16 and eight rebounds off the bench. John Walker also came off the bench to score nine points and grab eight rebounds. Marshall’s bench provided just 14 points.

Of course, the Aggies starters fared pretty well, too.

Christian Mekowulu also had 17 points, while Brandon Mahan had 12 and Jay Jay Candler had 10. John Walker, who also came off the bench, contributed nine points and eight boards.

Marshall was led by guards Rondale Watson and C.J. Burks, who combined for 37 points.

”I like to see it when we have five — almost six — guys in double figures,” A&M coach Billy Kennedy said. “when we’re sharing the ball we make ourselves hard to defend.”

”Defensively, we did a good job on Elmore and (forward Jannson) Williams. That was big on helping us win.”

Elmore, a senior guard, was averaging 20 points and had already hit 38 3-pointers. He was held to six points and missed all four attempts he took behind the 3-point line.

Williams, a 6-foot-9 forward, was averaging 9.6 points. He had five.

Brooklyn Blaylock, TexAgs

Head coach Billy Kennedy sees the team’s confidence growing as well as their ability to adjust in their roles.

That’s something we take pride in and emphasize every day,” Kennedy said. “These guys are starting to gain confidence. When you shut down other teams’ primary scorers that gives you a chance to win every night. We’ve been able to do that the last few games.”

The Aggies trailed 27-24 with 6 1/2 minutes left in the first half.

That’s when Starks drained a 3-pointer from the left wing to start an 11-2 run. The Aggies never lost the momentum and went on to take a 41-33 lead at halftime.

Then, they started the second half with a 10-2 run that Starks finished with a driving layup to take a 51-35 lead.

From there A&M’s lead never dripped below 11 points and reached 28, 88-60, on Starks layup with 2:29 remaining.

That basket finished off an impressive back to back performance by Starks, who was benched early in the second half of a victory over Valparaiso on Wednesday.

”Being as I didn’t have a good performance on Wednesday night I just locked in on Thursday going into practice,” Starks said. “I got some extra shots up. I studied a lot of film on Marshall and I just came in ready to play.”

Kennedy wouldn’t say whether Starks would continue to come off the bench. He was impressed, though.

”When he’s engaged like that he makes our team a whole lot better,” Kennedy said. “He was really good coming off the bench. His attitude was good and his performance was good.”

The Aggies appear to be pretty good, too. They’ve come along way from the unsure team with several newcomers that started 1-4 and lost in Reed Arena, 74-73, to Cal-Irvine.

Kennedy said they’re confidence is growing because the Aggies are growing.

“Basically, they’re growing up and they’re starting to know their roles,” he said. “We knew coming in with all these new guys that it would take us some time to adjust and get better. We still have got a long ways to improve.”