'Black Out' turns to blow out as A&M suffers second straight setback

Game #23: No. 17 Florida 86, Texas A&M 67
Records: Texas A&M (17-6, 7-3), Florida (17-6, 8-2)
Box Score

The Aggies’ jerseys were black. The shorts were black. Even the shoes were black.

So were their eyes.

Texas A&M (17-6, 7-3) was blown out in a “black out” basketball game as defending national champion Florida (17-6, 8-2) bullied the Aggies, 86-67, before 12,831 on Saturday night at Reed Arena.

By dealing A&M that loss, Florida takes over sole possession of first place in the Southeastern Conference standings.

A disastrous first half put the Aggies in a hole. Then they were quickly covered up when the No. 17 Gators got off to a fast start in the second half.

A&M coach Bucky McMillan knew the Aggies had to shoot successfully from 3-point range to have a chance against the Gators, who are much bigger and more physical inside.

Will Huffman, TexAgs

Texas A&M shot just 26.5 percent from 3-point range. Pop Isaacs made three of A&M’s nine treys.

But A&M made only one of 14 attempts from behind the arc in the first half. And when the Aggies tried to drive inside, they were routinely thwarted by Florida’s front line of 6-foot-9 forward Thomas Haugh, 6-foot-11 forward Alex Condon and 6-foot-10 center Rueben Chinyelu.

Consequently, the Aggies missed 23 consecutive field goal attempts during an 11-minute drought in which A&M managed just one Jamie Vinson free throw.

“I just thought we’d have a sequence where we, you know, make 10 threes of our next 12 or something like that,” said McMillan, who suggested his players might have been too ‘amped up.’ “Just never really happened for us.”

Going into the paint wasn’t a better option, either. The Aggies converted just two of 14 layups in the first half. Overall, they were outscored 48-24 in the paint.

“You can say when you’re off, let’s just take it to the basket. Just throw it inside,” McMillan said. “But that’s tough with their size. Very tough with their size, so we were relying on the 3-point shot tonight more than you want to be, but it was probably necessary, just being real.”

The Aggies shot just 17.1 percent in the first half (6 of 35) and were held to a paltry 19 points.

Will Huffman, TexAgs

Leading scorer Rashaun Agee was held to eight points, his lowest output since scoring nine vs. Jacksonville on Dec. 14.

Yet, somehow, they were still in contention. Florida couldn’t take complete advantage of A&M’s frigid shooting. The Gators held just an 11-point lead at the break.

“I thought our guys played really great defense in the first half,” McMillan said. “Like, about as good as we can play on defense.

“We were right there. We just couldn’t make a shot to cut into the lead.”

However, Chinyelu scored consecutive baskets on put-backs, and Haugh had a dunk as Florida outscored A&M 12-4 to open the second half and take a 42-23 lead.

A&M finally found the range and hit eight times from behind the arc in the second half. But they all came after Florida pushed the margin to as much as 28 points.

The loss followed a loss at Alabama earlier this week. It’s only the second time the Aggies have sustained consecutive defeats. They’d fallen to Oklahoma State and UCF in November.

Guard Pop Isaacs, who had 17 points to share team high honors with guard Marcus Hill, pointed out the Aggies surged after those back-to-back losses.

He predicted another would come.

“We’ve gone through this before. Now it’s in the SEC, so it’s, you know, more important, obviously,” Isaac said. “But at the end of the day, we’ve got some tough games coming up, and we’ve got a chance to redeem ourselves.

“Obviously, it was a bad night tonight, but I believe in this team. We did a good job staying together earlier in the year when we went through that adversity. I have no doubt this team will stick together, do this and find our swagger back.”

McMillan said the Aggies could use the loss as a learning opportunity. But they’d better learn fast with tough opponents Missouri and Vanderbilt coming up.

“I think we can learn more from this game than a lot of games,” McMillan said. “Just understand we’ve got to stay the course and not get too antsy.

“Our destiny is right in front of us. We just went through a very tough spot. Playing at Alabama. Playing Florida now. That’s a very tough spot. Tough teams.

“We’ve got opportunities coming up here.”