COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The Texas A&M men's basketball team returns home Tuesday to host Alabama at 8 p.m. The Aggies will look to make it a regular season sweep of the Crimson Tide after topping Alabama on a TJ Starks buzzer-beater earlier in the year. It was a statement game for junior Josh Nebo, who led the Aggies with 21 points and four blocks in the victory. A&M aims to return to the win column the midweek after dropping a hard fought battle at South Carolina over the weekend. Alabama is also looking to get back on track as the Crimson Tide fell at Mississippi State and at home against Florida last week. Tickets for the game are available here.
Texas A&M Quick Hits
• Savion Flagg led the Aggies with 24 points at South Carolina, hitting a career-high six threes in the game while also leading the Aggies in rebounding for the 13th time this season.
• Wendell Mitchell surpassed the 20-point mark for the fifth time in SEC play with 20 points at South Carolina, adding a season-best four steals for the fourth time.
• Mitchell has come into his own in SEC play, leading the Aggies with 14.8 ppg and 23 steals (1.0 spg).
• TJ Starks added 16 points at South Carolina ... He's averaging 16.7 points and 3.0 steals off the bench over the last three games.
• The Aggies limited themselves to single-digit turnovers for the third time this season, committing just seven mishaps in the win over Georgia.
• In the three games prior to his knee injury at Ole Miss, Josh Nebo was averaging 13.3 points and 9.0 rebounds, recording a pair of double-doubles in that span.
• Nebo's 54 blocks on the year are more than double any other Aggie's total and good for second in the SEC (2.5), 11th in the nation.
Series Info
• Tuesday's contest will be the 20th meeting between the Aggies and the Crimson Tide on the hardwood and the 10th between the schools as SEC competitors. Alabama has the edge in the series, 11-8.
• A&M claimed the first meeting this season, earing its first win in Tuscaloosa as a member of the SEC, as TJ Starks nailed a buzzer-beater from just beyond the three-point line for the 81-80 victory.
• During the regular season last year, the two schools split a pair of meetings with the Crimson Tide winning 79-57 on Dec. 30 in Tuscaloosa, before A&M evened the season series with a 68-66 victory in College Station on March 3.
• Alabama won the first six games in the series, before the Aggies went on a three-game win streak against the Crimson Tide.
• The two schools first met on December 19, 1958, when the Bob Rodgers-led Aggies fell to Alabama 66-62 in the Birmingham Classic ... The Aggies had to wait 40 years for their first win against the Tide when they won 65-58 in College Station on Dec. 1, 1998.
Double Up
• Graduate student Christian Mekowulu made it back-to-back double-doubles in the Georgia and Missouri games. This is the first time an Aggie has had a double-double consecutive games this season.
• Mekwolulu put up 15 points and brought down 10 rebounds to help the Aggies knock off Missouri before grabbing a season-high 15 rebounds and adding 15 points in the win over Georgia.
• Mekwolulu is one of three Aggies to record a double-double this season (Flagg, 3; Nebo, 3).
Clean Play
• The Aggies committed single-digit turnovers for the third time this season as they finished the Georgia game with just seven mishaps.
• A&M had just three turnovers in the win at Alabama, marking the fewest the Aggies have committed in a single game in the Billy Kennedy era. The previous low was four in 2017-18 and 2016-17.
• The last time A&M had five-or-fewer turnovers in a game was against Missouri in 2018 when the team committed just four.
Two For 20
• Two Aggies reached the 20-point mark in the same game for the fifth time this season as sophomore Savion Flagg led the way with 24 points and junior JUCO transfer Wendell Mitchell added 20 points at South Carolina.
• Flagg knocked down a career-high six threes in the battle with the Gamecocks, while Mitchell used a 16-point first half to help lead the way at South Carolina.
• Mitchell and sophomore Brandon Mahan added 23 and 20 points, respectively at Ole Miss.
• Mahan went 6-of-7 from beyond the arc to match his season best against the Rebels, while Mitchell put together a complete game to lead the Aggies for the sixth time this season.
• Against then-No. 14 Auburn, Flagg knocked down a career-high four threes to reach 20-plus points for the fourth time this season, while Mitchell went off for 16 of his 22 in the first half, and finished 9-of-10 from the free throw line against the Tigers.
• A&M started conference play seeing two Aggies score 20-plus points in the same game for the second time this season, as Flagg and classmate TJ Starks led the team in the opener.
• Flagg recorded his second double-double of the season, finishing with 20 points and 15 boards, while Starks matched his career high with 23 points, 17 coming in the second half.
• The first time two Aggies put up 20 points in the same game was when Mahan and graduate student Christian Mekowulu set season highs with 20 points apiece in the win over Valpo.
• Mahan knocked down four of his seven attempts from beyond the arc in the game, while Mekowulu went 8-for-9 from the field.
