Aggies suffer from familiar shortcomings in lopsided loss to Georgia, 63-48

Familiar shortcomings plagued Texas A&M in a second-half meltdown and resulted in an embarrassing 63-48 Southeastern Conference basketball loss to Georgia in Athens on Saturday.

The point total was the Aggies’ second-lowest of the season. A&M lost to Temple 65-42 on November 29.

Freshman guard Anthony Edwards scored 20 of his game-high 29 points and grabbed 15 rebounds to lead Georgia (11-10, 2-6). Freshman point guard Sahvir Wheeler, who once had signed with A&M, added nine points and five assists.

"I thought his impact on winning may have been as good as it's been all year, particularly his job on the glass," A&M coach Buzz Williams said of Edwards. "His physicality … not just when he had the ball but also when he was chasing after the ball. Defensively, I thought he was engaged. I thought he did a lot of things that impact winning. I thought he was dominant in every specific category.”

A&M (10-10, 4-4) was led by Wendell Mitchell with 13 points, though he connected on just 5 of 17 attempts. Andre Gordon contributed 10 points and Emanuel Miller had nine.

There was some thought the Aggies, who were coming off a 63-58 victory at Tennessee, had worked out some of the issues that have been recurring problems.

Rey Romo, TexAgs

Wendell Mitchell led the team in scoring but struggled shooting the ball throughout the contest.

But abysmal shooting, turnovers and allowing offensive boards — problems throughout the season — resurfaced, especially in the second half when the Aggies were outscored 39-27.

The Aggies shot just 32.2 percent (19 of 59) from the field, 20 percent from 3-point range (5 of 25), committed 10 of 17 turnovers in the second half and allowed 10 offensive rebounds after halftime.

A&M took a five-point lead in the early going and managed to maintain a 14-12 edge on Gordon’s 15-foot jumper with 9:12 showing in the first half.

By playing exceptional defense, the Aggies had an opportunity to significantly increase that lead. Instead, they converted just 1 of 13 shots over the next 7 1/2 minutes.

Still, A&M managed to take a 21-20 edge on a Miller layup at the 1:41 mark of the first half. However, Edwards and Wheeler scored consecutive layups to give Georgia a 24-21 lead at the break.

The Bulldogs did not slow down in the second half. Edwards and Jordan Harris hit consecutive 3-pointers to push the lead to 30-23.

A few minutes later, Rayshaun Hammonds dunked to cap a 9-0 run that gave Georgia a 39-27 lead with 13:35 left.

The Aggies never got closer than nine points and even fell behind by as much as 17 in their most lopsided loss since that loss to Temple.