No. 22 Aggies pull away in final minutes to fend off Demon Deacons
Those who subscribe to the theory that great teams win despite playing poorly would’ve been impressed with Texas A&M on Tuesday night.
The No. 22 Aggies (7-2) did not shoot particularly well, didn’t get to the foul line as often as usual, did not flourish on the offensive boards and did not take care of the basketball en route to a whopping 18 turnovers.
But they did make the right plays when needed to clinch a 57-44 victory over Wake Forest (7-3) at Reed Arena in the SEC/ACC Challenge.
Wade Taylor IV scored 15 points and Henry Coleman III and Pharrel Payne each had 10 to lead the Aggies, who posted their third consecutive victory. Andersson Garcia also had 16 rebounds.
All-ACC guard Hunter Sallis led Wake Forest with 19 points, but he converted just 7-of-22 field goal attempts.
“A lot of the things we try to be good at we weren’t good at,” A&M coach Buzz Williams said. “Very high turnover rate. When you have a high turnover rate you’re not going to get fouled. And you’re not going to get offensive rebounds.
“Statistically speaking, it’s the best game we’ve ever had here defensively.”
Behind that strong defensive effort, which forced 15 turnovers and limited Wake Forest to 28.3 percent shooting, the Aggies maintained the lead for more than 27 minutes.
Yet, they were clinging to just a 45-42 lead with fewer than seven minutes remaining. That’s when Coleman scored the first six points in a 9-0 run to settle the issue.
Coleman hit two free throws with 6:46 to play. He followed with a dunk in transition after Taylor had stolen the ball at mid-court. Then, he hit a fadeaway baseline jumper.
Garcia added a conventional three-point play with 4:33 left to provide a 54-42 lead. Wake Forest managed only two points over the final seven minutes.
“Everybody is on the same page,” said Payne, who scored eight points in the second half. “If you look at our bench, you look at the players on the court, everybody is up on their feet.
“On the same page, we were able to push through and go to another gear in those last six minutes.”
In the first 20 minutes the Aggies couldn’t stay in gear. They threatened to pull away at times, but could not primarily because they accumulated an alarming 14 turnovers.
Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes was feeling cautiously optimistic at the break.
“I felt like we had the game going in our direction, especially in the first half,” Forbes said. “They only had two offensive rebounds at halftime. They may be the best offensive rebounding team in the country.
“We turned them over like 14 times in the first half. But we were down three.”
The Aggies appeared to be in control when a 17-3 run gave them a 26-19 lead with 5:44 remaining in the first half.
But then they lost control. A&M committed turnovers on six consecutive possessions in just over five minutes.
Wake Forest capitalized on that carelessness to forge a 26-26 tie on a Tre’Von Spillers layup with 1:53 left in the half.
But Taylor banked in a deep 3-pointer, which allowed the Aggies to take a 29-26 edge into the break.
The A&M lead did not exceed five points in the second half until Coleman’s free throws started the decisive 9-0 run.
