Rashaun Agee recorded 22 points and nine rebounds to lead 10th-seeded Texas A&M to an easy 63-50 victory over No. 7 seed Saint Mary’s in South region first-round action on Thursday at Oklahoma City.
Ruben Dominguez scored all 11 of his points in the first half in a contest that the Aggies (22-11) never trailed.
Joshua Dent scored 18 points and Liam Campbell added 15 for the Gaels (27-6), who committed a season-worst 18 turnovers.
Paulius Murauskas, the Gaels’ leading scorer, had just four points and three rebounds in 23 minutes while battling an illness.
The Aggies will play second-seeded Houston in the second round on Saturday. The Cougars routed 15th-seeded Idaho 78-47 on Thursday.
Texas A&M shot 44.2% from the field, including 8 of 23 from 3-point range.
“I thought we played really well, it was an elite defensive performance from us,” Texas A&M coach Bucky McMillan said. “They made 10 threes, and we still had a double-digit win. That means we did a lot of good things. I’m proud of our guys. We didn’t come here just for one game.”
Murauskas didn’t start due to his illness but entered with 17:07 left in the first half. He was clearly hindered and never found his stride. The player averaging 18.8 points and 7.7 rebounds made just 1 of 6 shots.
He was sent to the locker room with 11 seconds left after his frustration boiled over. Murauskas came off the bench and onto the court to grab the back of the jersey of Texas A&M’s Rylan Griffen after Griffen said something in the direction of the Saint Mary’s bench.
Saint Mary’s shot just 38.3% from the field and made 10 of 23 3-point attempts.
“We didn’t play really well,” Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett said. “You’ve got to have more in the NCAA Tournament. We did a poor job taking care of the ball. We were poor offensively. You can’t give up those areas and expect to play well and win.”
The Aggies led by 11 points at halftime, then broke the game open with an 11-3 run to start the second half. The run was capped when Josh Holloway set up Jamie Vinson for an alley-oop dunk to make it 48-29 with 14:40 left.
Texas A&M led 53-33 before Dent made two 3-pointers during a 9-1 run that brought the Gaels within 12 with 7:41 remaining but there wouldn’t be a late-game push.
Agee joined Dominguez in scoring 11 first-half points as the Aggies led 37-26 at the break.
Texas A&M rattled off the game’s first nine points but Saint Mary’s crept within 23-22 with 4:54 left in the half after consecutive 3-pointers by Mikey Lewis and Dent.
Later in the half, Dominguez knocked down two 3-pointers in 32 seconds and Zach Clemence added a trey with 1:05 left to complete a 9-0 burst and give Texas A&M a 13-point advantage.
“We felt from the first play of the game, they were not used to this style of play,” Dominguez said. “We said in the first media timeout that they were tired. They weren’t used to the pressure. Those first few minutes were when we realized they were tired.”
–Field Level Media
