Sour shooting sinks Texas A&M lower as Arkansas sweeps series

Despite a horrid stretch in perhaps the worst half of the season, Texas A&M somehow in the final minutes still had a shot to overcome Arkansas.

In keeping with the theme of the night, that shot went awry.

The Aggies (15-11, 6-7) could not get the clutch shots to finish off a late rally and suffered a 78-71 Southeastern Conference basketball loss to Arkansas (13-13, 4-9) on Tuesday night at Reed Arena.

A&M muddled through a stretch of almost 10-and-a-half minutes without a field goal at the top of the second half.

“We struggled to see the ball go in at the start of the second half,” A&M guard Jace Carter said. “We’ve got to get past that and do other things to help us win. That’s a long time without scoring a basket.”

Yet, the Aggies trailed just 61-58 when Wade Taylor IV was fouled on a layup with 2:44 remaining.

Taylor uncharacteristically missed a free throw attempt to get the Aggies closer, but Andersson Garcia slapped an offensive rebound to Tyrece “Boots” Radford at the 3-point line.

Radford’s potential game-tying 3-pointer did not connect.

Arkansas’ Tramon Mark then finished off a rare 4-point play to give Arkansas a 65-58 lead. The Razorbacks converted 11-of-14 free throws in the final two minutes to stave off the Aggies.

“That four-point play… right after that kind of hurt,” A&M guard Eli Lawrence said. “Up until that point we were good. We were together. The ball just didn’t go our way.”

A lot of other things didn’t go A&M’s way either.

The Aggies’ poor shooting — at one point in the second half they hit just one of 16 field goal attempts — was just one issue.

They got 20 offensive rebounds, but only managed seven second-chance points. They converted 8-of-23 layups. They committed a dozen turnovers. They missed 14 of their 39 free throws.

In contrast, Arkansas converted 28-of-34 free throws. Garcia, Taylor and Carter all fouled out for the Aggies.

“We fouled way too much,” A&M coach Buzz Williams said. “When we didn’t foul we gave them way too many points at the rim.

“When they didn’t score at the rim we didn’t finish enough possessions with a defensive rebound. We got fouled. We have to make a higher percentage of our free throws.

Chris Swann, TexAgs

As a team, Texas A&M shot just 26.3 percent from the floor in the second half.

“There’s not one thing that’s really any different than the things we always talk about. It’s just an accumulation of not quite good enough in too many categories.”

In a last-second loss at Fayetteville last month, Taylor led A&M with 41 points. This time he was limited to 11. Carter led A&M with 14 points.

Arkansas was led by Mark with 26 points and 6-foot-10 forward Makhi Mitchell, who had 22 points, 13 rebounds and four blocked shots.

The Quadrant 3 loss figures to weaken A&M’s precarious NCAA Tournament aspirations. The Aggies’ vital NET ranking was 45, but figures to drop several spots.

The Aggies have their work cut out for them. They next travel to face No. 5 Tennessee (No. 6 NET ranking) and then play host to No. 20 South Carolina.

If they don’t at least split those games, the Aggies cannot finish better than 9-9 in the SEC race, which may further jeopardize their NCAA Tournament hopes.

“This is not the situation you want to be in,” Carter said. “But I know we’re not going to sulk and pity and look for an excuse. We’re grown men. Act like grown men.”