Late misses plague Aggies in road loss to Vanderbilt in Nashville, 72-67

Press conference video courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics.

An arduous two minutes caused a long day for Texas A&M.

A series of missed shots and turnovers prevented the Aggies from protecting a slim lead in crunch time as they suffered a 72-67 Southeastern Conference basketball loss to Vanderbilt on Saturday in Nashville.

The Aggies (16-11, 5-9) made just one of five shots and committed two turnovers down the stretch to sustain their ninth loss in 10 games.

Vanderbilt guard Scottie Pippen, Jr. — who may have gotten the benefit of some favorable calls en route to a game-high 24 points — made a pair of free throws with 1:59 remaining.

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The Ags will look to get back on track as they return home to face Georgia on February 22.

Then, Liam Robbins scored a layup with 1:13 left to give Vanderbilt a 68-65 lead that the Commodores never surrendered.

“We’ve been playing pretty hard these last couple of games. For it not to go your way, it’s frustrating,” said A&M senior guard Quenton Jackson, who scored a team-high 23 points. “We’ve just got to find that extra gear. That extra oomph to get us going.

“I think we started off pretty slow, not that we were down by a big number. That kind of set the tempo for the game, but we picked it up. I think we played well and hard the rest of the game. We even brought it back up and one point. We’ve got to figure out a way to win.”

The Aggies did some good things. Jackson’s scoring output was his highest total since he had 31 in a victory over Central Arkansas on Dec. 29.

He hit 11-of-12 free throws. Overall, the Aggies were 18-of-23 at the foul line. They also out-rebounded Vanderbilt, 38-35, and limited the Commodores to a respectable nine offensive boards.

Hassan Diarra came off the bench to score 13 points, and Tyrece Radford had 12.

But the Aggies missed 10 layups. They also converted just 5-of-21 (23.8 percent) from the 3-point line where they’ve struggled of late.

Further, forward Henry Coleman III — A&M’s second-leading scorer on the season — and guards Wade Taylor IV and Marcus Williams were all scoreless.

“You can look at several of our guys that if you added up their totals of misses, it’s just hard to overcome,” A&M coach Buzz Williams said. “It’s not just Henry. It’s not just this player or that player.

“We need everybody to be the best they can be. I don’t think anybody is going to play perfect, but if you have multiple players not producing at the level you need, now the guys that are producing have to move a seat over from what you normally do.”

Although the chance for victory slipped away in the final minutes, Williams lamented how the Aggies started each half.

They fell behind 10-5 to start the game. They were outscored 9-0 to start the second half.

“That’s 19-5. We’re down 14 (points) just in those two segments,” Williams said. “I thought our guys played with incredible effort. I thought we did a lot of good things down the stretch. We just had so many empty minutes that forced other guys to have to do things that were a little too much at times.”

A&M’s recent woes from the 3-point line continued in the first half. The Aggies hit only 2-of-11 attempts from long range.

However, they compensated by forcing a dozen turnovers and scoring 18 points off Vanderbilt’s miscues.

Among those was a Taylor steal which led to a Diarra jumper, which gave A&M a 25-23 lead with 2:21 remaining in the half.

Pippen came back to hit a jumper and layup on back-to-back possessions for Vanderbilt.

But Diarra was fouled on a rebound by Vanderbilt’s Myles Stutes with 13 seconds left. Diarra followed up with a pair of free throws to bring the Aggies within a point at the break.

The Aggies appeared in trouble when guard Jordan Wright, who had 15 points, quickly scored five points to start a 9-0 run to start the second half.

But the Aggies fought back and maintained a 65-64 advantage after Radford hit a layup with 2:10 left.

However, A few seconds later, Pippen drew a foul on Diarra and hit a pair of free throws to put Vanderbilt up, 66-65, with 1:59 left.

The Aggies had too many miscues and missed shots to recover.