Shooting woes doom No. 24 Aggies in upset loss to Murray State, 88-79

Texas A&M basketball suffered its first loss of the young 2022-23 season with an 88-79 defeat at the hands of Murray State and new head coach Steve Prohm in the opening round of the Myrtle Beach Invitational. 

The Aggie offense sputtered from the opening tip, falling behind 15-7 in the first six minutes of the contest. It was a deficit Texas A&M never overcame as Murray State never trailed in the game.

“I thought they had more energy start to finish, particularly in the first 10 minutes,” A&M head coach Buzz Williams said. “We tried to get our footing, and we never got it. In many respects, that was the difference in the game.”

The Aggies did make several runs. At the 8:24 mark, they cut a 51-36 second-half lead to just a basket at 60-58.

However, the Racers rebuffed that charge with a 10-2 run of their own thanks to efficient production at the charity stripe, hitting 16-of-19 free throws the rest of the game.

They also feasted at the three-point line, shooting 45 percent (10-of-22). 

“I don’t think we contested shots on the perimeter or on the rim the way that we should do,” Williams said. “They gained confidence from that, and we have to do a better job of having energy from start to finish.”

Tyrece Radford led the Aggies with 19 points while Wade Taylor finished with 16, despite the pair combining to make just 2-of-14 shots from behind the arc.

Overall, the Aggies struggled from the field, shooting a frigid 38 percent and 68 percent from the free throw line (19-of-28). Texas A&M collected 11 more offensive rebounds and outscored the Racers 18-4 in second-chance points. Unfortunately, the Aggies missed a high percentage of shots near the rim.

“If you look at the stat sheet, we did some things really well. We shot 21 more balls than they did. We had 20 offensive rebounds. We had 11 turnovers. Those are all season bests, so we did some good things,” Williams said. “What makes the loss so disappointing are the things we can control from start to finish. We didn’t meet the standard at which we want to operate.”

The Aggies now face the Colorado Buffaloes — who were also upset earlier today by Massachusetts, 66-63 — in the loser’s bracket of the three-day tournament tomorrow at 11 a.m. CT.