Expect plenty of fouls and battles in the paint when No. 20 Texas A&M squares off with Wake Forest on Tuesday in an SEC-ACC Challenge clash in College Station, Texas.
The Aggies (6-2) headed home after an 81-77 victory over Rutgers in the fifth-place game of the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas on Saturday.
Wade Taylor IV paced Texas A&M with a season-high 24 points (16 in the second half), with Solomon Washington, Henry Coleman III and Manny Obaseki adding 11 points each.
Down 77-76 late in a game that featured 10 lead changes and seven ties, Washington grabbed a rebound and fed Obaseki for a fastbreak dunk with 2:12 to play, and the Aggies had the lead for good. Taylor added a pair of late free throws and Washington blocked a Rutgers’ shot with nine seconds left in the Aggies’ second straight win.
Texas A&M lost to Oregon in the opening round of the tournament before beating then-No. 21 Creighton and Rutgers, each by four points.
“I think that our response to adversity (against Oregon) was really poor considering our experience and our maturity, and I think the response from Tuesday going into Wednesday was outstanding,” Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams said.
“(Against Rutgers) at halftime, I thought there were some things we could have been better at. But our maturity and our experience together the last 8-to-10 minutes was probably the swing vote for us.”
Texas A&M beat Rutgers despite going 2 for 15 from beyond the arc and being outrebounded 42-35. The Aggies had just 12 offensive boards.
“This was the worst we’ve been on the glass offensively and the worst we’ve been on the glass defensively, and that’s a credit to Rutgers,” Williams said. “But a portion of that is we weren’t just very good in the zone to finish the possession.”
The Demon Deacons are coming off a 57-51 victory over Minnesota on Friday in the third-place game of the ESPN Events Invitational in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
Tre’Von Spillers scored 18 points and grabbed 16 rebounds, while Cameron Hildreth added 13 points for Wake Forest (7-2). Hildreth made a driving reverse layup with 14 seconds left to expand the lead to five points.
Efton Reid III hit for 10 points and eight rebounds as the Demon Deacons responded well after a 75-58 loss to No. 18 Florida to open the tournament. Wake Forest held Minnesota scoreless over the final 2:34.
“We did a really good job defensively down the stretch,” Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes said. “We had four stops in a row to end the game — I believe four out of the last five possessions. We executed what we ran on offense. We didn’t make all of the plays we called, but we had good looks.
“On the offensive glass, we did a good job and got extra shots out of that when we weren’t making shots. We switched up positioning a little bit today, and it really helped our rebounding.”
Expect a bounce-back performance from Wake Forest’s Hunter Sallis. He entered the Minnesota game averaging 18.4 points per game, but scored just four points on 1-of-11 shooting from the floor, including misses on all five of his 3-point attempts.
–Field Level Media
