Wade Taylor IV hit for 18 points and Henry Coleman III had a key dunk and a free throw in the final seconds as No. 20 Texas A&M came from behind to beat No. 21 Creighton 77-73 on Wednesday in pool play at the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas.
Texas A&M (5-2) trailed by four points at halftime but took a 69-67 lead on a free throw by Andersson Garcia with 1:16 to play. Creighton regained the front on Jackson McAndrew’s 3-pointer with 58 seconds remaining.
Solomon Washington then canned a second-chance layup and hit a free throw with 35 seconds left to put the Aggies on top 72-70. A free throw by the Bluejays’ Ryan Kalkbrenner cut the margin to one point, but Texas A&M stoked its advantage to three on a ringing dunk by Coleman with 16 seconds to play.
Coleman added a free throw with nine seconds left, and Washington clinched the win for the Aggies with a steal and then a layup.
Coleman finished with 17 points and nine rebounds for Texas A&M while Washington and Garcia had 10 points each. Texas A&M earned a 48-37 edge on the glass and a 21-11 advantage in offensive rebounds.
Creighton’s Pop Isaacs led all scorers with 25 points. McAndrew added 16 and Steven Ashworth scored 14 points in his return after missing a game with an ankle injury. The Bluejays (4-3) have dropped three straight games.
The Bluejays owned the game’s first three minutes, scoring the initial eight points and then going up 10-2 when Kalkbrenner pounded home a dunk at the 17:03 mark.
Texas A&M culled its deficit to four points when Taylor hit a pullup jumper at the halfway point of the first half. But the Aggies’ run was countered by a 3-pointer from Isaacs and a second-chance layup from McAndrew, the latter with 5:51 to play in the half. Creighton settled for a 31-27 lead to the break.
Taylor’s 11 points paced all scorers before halftime while Ashworth led the Bluejays with nine points in the first half.
The Aggies rallied to take their first lead of the game when Washington poured in a 3-pointer to make it 34-33 with 17:49 to play. Creighton answered, rebuilding its advantage to seven points on Ashworth’s 3-pointer at the 15:20 mark.
–Field Level Media
