Aggies look to take advantage of Alabama's road struggles at Reed Arena

Nothing seems to come easy for Texas A&M this basketball season. And nothing comes easy against Alabama in any basketball season.

The last two Alabama-Texas A&M basketball games have been decided by a last-second shot. Last year Alabama’s Collin Sexton hit a floater to eliminate the Aggies from the Southeastern Conference Tournament.

Last month, A&M’s T.J. Starks banked in a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to lift A&M to an 81-80 victory.

The Aggies (10-14, 3-9) are hoping for a similar result, but without the suspense when they face Alabama (15-10, 6-6) Tuesday night at 8 p.m. at Reed Arena.

“The last two games have come down to the last shot,” A&M coach Billy Kennedy said on Monday. “Hopefully, we can stay out of that situation and win easily.”

Any win — easy or difficult — likely will require the Aggies play better perimeter defense and avoiding turnovers. Accomplishing those goals would give the Aggies a great chance to again topple Alabama, which is seeking to regain traction after consecutive one-sided losses to Mississippi State and Florida.

The Crimson Tide has also struggled on the road. It’s lost four of its last five road games with the only away victory coming over lowly Vanderbilt on February 9.

However, Alabama hit a season-high 12 goals from 3-point range in that game. That’s somewhat of a concern because the Aggies allowed 16 treys in their 84-77 loss to South Carolina last Saturday.

“We lost shooters,” sophomore forward Savion Flagg explained “We got away from the game plan and they just took advantage of it.”

A&M has allowed 201 3-point goals this season. That’s the most by any SEC team.

“Threes, it seems like, have been hurting [us] all year,” Kennedy said. "We went back and charted every 3. Teams seem like they’re shooting the ball really well against us.

"We have to do a better job of pressuring the ball and closing out with high hands. I think sometimes we don’t finish off a possession with maximum effort in contesting a shot. So, that’s something we’ve really been emphasizing the last couple of days.”

The Tide converted 10 from behind the arc in an earlier clash with A&M last month in Tuscaloosa.

The Aggies only hit 3 triples in that game, but one was a T.J. Starks’ banked-in buzzer-beater that lifted A&M to an 81-80 victory.

Also in that win, Josh Nebo scored 21 points, Wendell Mitchell had 18 and Savion Flagg 16. The Aggies will need them — and/or perhaps Christian Mekowulu — to again supply strong scoring outputs.

Yet, perhaps most importantly, the Aggies need to duplicate their season-low three turnovers committed in that win. That was the fewest turnovers by A&M in the Kennedy era. Taking care of the basketball again projects as a key factor.

“When we have kept our turnovers under 10 I think we’ve won just about every game,” Kennedy said. “That’s something we’ve talked about a lot. Even against South Carolina we had 11 turnovers in the second half.

“At times we’re good at taking care of the ball. At times we’re not. Hopefully, we’ll be a little bit more sure handed with the ball against Alabama."