Wade Taylor IV scored 15 points as No. 22 Texas A&M was at its best in the final 10 minutes in a 57-44 win over visiting Wake Forest on Tuesday in an SEC/ACC Challenge clash in College Station, Texas.
The Aggies (7-2) led by three at halftime and by five with 10:08 to play. Wake Forest trimmed its deficit to three with 8:54 to play before A&M scored 11 of the next 13 points to break it open and win its third straight contest.
Henry Coleman III and Pharrell Payne added 10 points each for the Aggies while Andersson Garcia grabbed a season-high 16 rebounds.
Hunter Sallis led all scorers with 19 points, with Davin Cosby Jr. adding 10 for the Demon Deacons (7-3). Wake Forest shot just 28.3 percent and missed six of its final seven shots, finishing with just 18 second-half points.
The Demon Deacons built a 12-7 lead after Sallis hit a 3-pointer five minutes into the game. A dunk by Tre’Von Spillers at the 12:40 mark expanded Wake Forest’s advantage to seven, but the Aggies swung back with baskets by Payne and Zhuric Phelps and a three-point play by Solomon Washington for a 16-16 tie just over two minutes later.
A&M reeled off a 7-0 run over the ensuing three minutes to take its largest lead of the half. The spurt was immediately parried by a 10-3 surge by the visitors, who tied the game at 26 on a basket by Spillers with 1:53 to play in the first half.
Taylor then canned a 3-pointer with 25 seconds remaining that pushed the Aggies to a 29-26 lead at the break.
Taylor’s nine first-half points paced A&M, which outshot the Demon Deacons 57.9 percent to 30.3 percent before halftime. Sallis led all scorers with 12 points.
The Demon Deacons rallied to take a brief lead at 36-34 as Cosby and Sallis hit back-to-back 3-pointers, the latter with 14:15 to play. A&M went back to the front on a pair of layups by Payne that sandwiched a free throw by Taylor, setting the table for the Aggies’ decisive run.
–Field Level Media
