Second-half rally comes up short as A&M ultimately falls at Memphis
Behind a spirited rally, Texas A&M came close to pulling off an improbable upset but just couldn’t close it out.
Unable to get pivotal defensive stops in the final minute, A&M (6-4) endured an 83-79 college basketball loss to Memphis (9-3) on Saturday night at the FedEx Forum.
A second-chance put-back with nine seconds remaining and a pair of free throws with two seconds left were too much to overcome.
“We need our good players to be good players when it’s time to be good players,” A&M coach Buzz Williams said. “I think we have a lot of good players, but we can’t give away possessions from immaturity or negative emotion or ‘I’m in my own sphere, and I’m not connected.’
“When we get that figured out, I think we’ll be good.”
The Aggies trailed by a dozen points early in the second half but clawed their way back to take a 69-68 lead on a Julius Marble II basket just over three minutes remaining.
But four of A&M’s next five possessions ended with two turnovers and two missed shots. That enabled Memphis to build its lead back to 79-73 with 45 seconds left.
The stubborn Aggies pulled within 79-76 on a pair of Wade Taylor IV free throws and another from Tyrece Radford with 39 seconds to play.
But Memphis forward Elijah McCadden put back an offensive rebound with nine seconds left. Six seconds later, guard Kendric Davis — who led Memphis with 23 points — converted a pair of free throws to end the Aggies’ hopes of a remarkable comeback.
Taylor led A&M with 25 points, while Marble chipped in 16. Manny Obaseki came off the bench to score 14. Henry Coleman III also came on to score 12.
That A&M would even have a chance to win seemed farfetched at halftime.
The Aggies converted just three of their last 14 shots in the first half to trail 45-36 at the break. Overall, the Aggies shot just 37.9 percent from the field (22 of 58).
Much of their shooting issues were traced back to the usually-reliable Radford, who converted just one of 13 field goal attempts. He compensated to some degree with a team-high ten rebounds.
Though struggling from the field, the Aggies were excellent at the foul line. A&M converted 27-of-33 free throw attempts (81.8 percent).
Still, when Memphis opened the second half with a 3-pointer, the Aggies trailed by 12 and appeared to be fading.
But they slowly whittled away at the Memphis lead. The Aggies finally moved ahead 70-69 on Marble’s spinning jumper in the paint over DeAndre Williams with 3:20 left on the clock.
But 15 seconds later, Memphis regained the lead on a layup by Williams. A&M could not recover, though the Aggies stayed close.
Taylor converted a three-point play to bring A&M within 81-79 with 3.6 seconds left.
Taylor then fouled Davis, who made the game-clinching free throws.
