Second-half surge overwhelms Beavers as A&M remains perfect at Reed

No second look was needed to see why Texas A&M rolled to an impressive college basketball victory over Oregon State on Sunday evening.

A dominant second-half performance and the denial of second chances paved the way for the Aggies’ 72-54 triumph at Reed Arena.

The Aggies (6-3) trailed 30-26 at halftime but opened the second half with a 14-2 run. They never slowed down.

A&M built as much as a 20-point lead and never maintained at least a 13-point margin over the final 10 minutes.

They gained redemption for a disappointing 86-71 loss to Boise State last week.

In that loss, A&M allowed Boise State to shoot 44 percent from 3-point range and committed 26 fouls, which resulted in 36 free throw attempts.

In a dramatic turnaround, A&M limited Oregon State (4-6) to 38.4 percent shooting behind the arc and committed just nine fouls, which resulted in just 11 attempted free throws.

A&M allowed Oregon State only six offensive rebounds and a mere five second-chance points. That’s an area in which the Aggies had struggled in their three losses.

Jamie Maury, TexAgs

Dennis drilled four 3-pointers in the win.

“One of the things that I think was a huge difference is we had nine turnovers in the first half and only three in the second half. Five of those nine were live-ball,” Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams said. “So, we were doing some good things in the first half on the glass. I thought we were even better in the second half on the glass.”

That wasn’t all the Aggies did well in the second half. They converted 50 percent from the field, 87.6 percent at the foul line and hit six times from behind the arc in the second half.

Tyrece Radford scored all of his 12 points in the second half. Dexter Dennis — who led the Aggies with 16 points — had nine after halftime.

Julius Marble II and Manny Obaseki both finished with 11 points, while Wade Taylor IV had nine points and six assists.

Oregon State was led by guard Jordan Pope with 15 points, but five came in the second half when the Beavers converted just 29.6 percent from the field (8 of 27).

“I think a lot of things improved in the second half,” Dennis said. “We started out really, really good. They went on their little run. They’ve got a couple of guys who can really shoot the basketball. I think we’re hooked up on defense, and when we’re in man-on-man, I think we’re one of the best in the country in guarding the ball.”

The Aggies did an excellent job on defense for most of the first half, too.

But with about two minutes remaining in the half, forward Dzmitry Ryuny — a senior from Belarus — hit back-to-back 3-pointers in an 8-0 run that enabled Oregon State to take a 30-26 lead at the break.

The Aggies hit just one of their last eight field goal attempts in the half and did not score during the last 2:49 of the half.

They weren’t worried, though.

“We weren’t really fazed by it,” Marble said. “They went on a little bit of a run to end the half. We were just talking (at halftime) about … ‘We’re good. We’re going to come out in the second half and make sure we throw the first punch.’ That’s what we did. We came out, threw the first punch and built that lead up and were able to hold it for the rest of the game.”

Actually, the Aggies threw the first four punches of the second half.

Radford hit consecutive triples and then a couple of free throws. Taylor then scored on a runner.

An Oregon State 3-pointer interrupted the Aggies’ roll, but Dennis hit a couple of treys, and Marble had a conventional 3-point play to give A&M a 45-35.

The margin swelled to 60-40 on a layup by Obaseki with 9:06 remaining.

Though Williams said the Aggies still have wrinkles to iron out, he acknowledged the win was a big stride forward.

They need to make strides, especially with a trip to face (8-2) Memphis looming next Saturday.

“I’m just thankful it is a step in the right direction,” Williams said. “We have many more steps that we have to go. Memphis will present a lot of problems from a talent perspective, an environment perspective.

“I hope over the next nine days, we can continue to take positive steps. I feel fairly convinced that we have figured out what has caused us problems. Our players have received that information and have confidence in those adjustments.

“We just need to continue to take the next steps.”