Inside success utilized in Monday's lopsided Aggie victory over PVAMU

Game #13: Texas A&M 111, Prairie View A&M 82
Records: Texas A&M (10-3, 0-0), Prairie View A&M (5-8, 0-0)
Box Score

Abandoning their usual shooting MO — mostly outside — the Aggies raced to another 100-point outburst on Monday night at Reed Arena.

The tale of Texas A&M’s 111-82 college basketball victory over Prairie View (5-8) was an inside story. In the first 12 minutes, the Aggies (10-3) posted 24 of their 52 points in the paint en route to taking a 41-17 lead.

From there, their margin never dropped to fewer than 20 points as A&M hit triple digits for the sixth time. It was the third consecutive game in which the Aggies exceeded 110 points.

“It’s just Bucky Ball,” said guard Rubén Dominguez. “We don’t stop. There’s no relax. They score. It doesn’t matter. We can take the ball out and run, and make some fast breaks. That’s our way.”

But usually, that way is to the 3-point arch. The Aggies entered the game vs. Prairie View ranked 20th in the nation in 3-pointers attempted per game at 30.4.

Actually, they were right on schedule with 30 attempts from behind the arc, 11 of which connected.

But 19 of those attempts were in the second half, well after the outcome was decided. A&M led 33-10 before hitting its second 3-point shot.

Prairie View was aware of A&M’s penchant for taking 3-pointers, so the visiting Panthers were guarding the perimeter.

That opened up opportunities inside. The Aggies took them.

“When you share the ball, and you have shooters on the floor, there’s decisions that have to be made (by the defense),” A&M coach Bucky McMillan said. “They’re going to guard the three or the paint. When they’re guarding the three, obviously, if you’re able to penetrate, you’re going to have room at the rim to finish. That’s kind of what was happening.”

Will Huffman, TexAgs

With 19 points and 13 boards, Rashaun Agee now has five double-doubles this season.

It happened so often that the Aggies shot 67.6 percent from the field in the decisive first half and finished at 54.3 percent overall (38 of 70). They converted 18 of 27 layups and four dunks.

Rashaun Agee posted a double-double with 19 points and 13 rebounds to lead the way. Marcus Hill added 16 points, Dominguez had 14, Pop Isaacs 13 and Josh Holloway 10.

A name ominously missing from the stat sheet was Mackenzie Mgbako, the 6-foot-9 junior forward who’s averaging 10.4 points and 4.9 rebounds.

McMillan announced Mgbako has a broken foot and will miss the remainder of the season.

“I’d be lying if I said we’re not going to miss him,” McMillan said. “He’s obviously a very good player. Two of the three games that we lost, we lost without him. He’s an impact to our team in a lot of ways.

“That being said, we can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We’ve just got to really step it up. Our players, our coaches and our fans. We’re going to need everybody because we’re going into the gauntlet of SEC play without one of our really good players.”

Southeastern Conference competition begins on Saturday with LSU visiting Reed Arena. The Tigers — and the other SEC opponents — will represent a significant step up in competition for the Aggies, who have beaten just two major conference opponents (Pitt and Florida State).

“It’ll be a grind in the SEC,” McMillan said. “We know that, but we’ve got to play to who we are, which is guards taking space and shoot and score.”

Isaacs said the Aggies are prepared for what’s in store when SEC play begins.

“It’s not about to be peaches and cream when we go into conference (play),” he said. “We’re going to have some highs. We’re going to have some lows. It’s just about can we stay consistent enough through those and still be ourselves and still have our identity through those things?

“Overall, I feel like we’re ready. I feel like we’re excited. I just can’t wait to go out there and hoop.”