RECORDS & SERIES NOTES
· Texas A&M fell to South Carolina, 81-67, Saturday at Reed Arena to move to 8-8 (2-3 SEC) on the season.
· The Aggies are 4-6 all-time against the Gamecocks.
TEAM NOTES
· Texas A&M shot 28-of-41 from the free-throw line, notching a new season-high in free throws made.
· The Aggies’ 41 attempts is the most since Jan. 13, 2015, when the A&M had 44 attempts from the charity stripe against Mississippi State inside Reed Arena.
· Texas A&M used the starting lineup combination of Savion Flagg, Wendell Mitchell, Emanuel Miller, Andre Gordon, and Josh Nebo for the first time this season (3-3).
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
· Josh Nebo led the Aggies in scoring for the seventh time this season with 18 points.
· The Houston native tallied three blocks, adding to his career total of 255, which ranks second among active shot blockers in the NCAA.
· Quenton Jackson registered his fifth game of the season with 10-or-more points (12).
· Andre Gordon tallied 10 points, marking four of his last five games with 10-or-more points.
· Emanuel Miller led the Maroon & White on the boards with nine rebounds.
· Buzz Williams is 8-8 in his first season at Texas A&M and 261-163 in his 13 seasons as a head coach.
UP NEXT
The Aggies hit the road to take on Missouri Tuesday night at 8 pm.
Texas A&M Quotes
Head Coach Buzz Williams
On South Carolina’s shooting performance…
“All the credit goes to them for sure. Half of their shots were from three, and relative to what we would like to do defensively, that’s a good number when 50% of their shots were from three. We did an incredibly poor job of contesting their shots, and some of that was off of their offensive rebounds. I think they outrebounded us by 15 in the second half. We did a really good job of keeping them out of the paint. Entering today we had the second-best defense in SEC games. Part of that is because we force opponents into shooting more threes than anybody else. If you know that that’s what the design is, then we have to contest at a much higher rate than we have this week.”
On the energy that Quenton Jackson is providing…
“I think he’s the typical junior college player coming back after Christmas. He’s realizing, ‘oh, this is different. I only have three semesters left in college. If I’m going to be somebody now’s the time.’ He’s been very consistent in his work individually. He’s started to play hard all the time. I’ve always thought that he is the fastest guy on the team, and some of his downhill speed can be seen in his free throw numbers. Collectively, the guys are starting to care more, and when you care more you try harder, and I think Q [Quenton Jackson] is for sure trying harder.”
Freshman Forward Emanuel Miller
On how the big the stretch was where they took the lead in the second half…
“I think that stretch was important. We tried competing to the best of our ability. I know one through 13, including the guys on the bench, everyone was giving their effort. I know on the court we tried to execute and play defensively that stretch. There were a lot of things we could have done better. We are just going to use that as a learning experience and look forward to the next game against Missouri.”
Junior Guard Quenton Jackson
On the defensive game plan…
“The only strategy is we have to play defense. We have to have heart and we have to have pride. We can’t lay down on our backs. We have to contest threes and rebound. We know what we need to do, but we are doing a poor job of executing it right now. We need to get back in the lab and figure out what we need to do next.”
On what they did to get open looks from behind the three-point line...
“I believe they all just hit open shots. They are all scholarship players who can hit shots. If you don’t contest, you have a wide-open shot, and they hit them.”
South Carolina Quotes
Head Coach Frank Martin
Opening Statement…
“I chose not to play Jair [Bolden] last game. I thought he needed to take a deep breath, take a step back, and come at it better. Give him credit. He played like a champ today. Obviously, we don’t win without his efforts today. Not just his shot making, but his play making as well. Texas A&M is a difficult team to play against with that three-quarter press. It doesn’t allow you to play with structure, it makes your players play in space and forces them to make decisions. Another guy who really made an impact today was AJ [Lawson]. He can sometimes go into a shell, and he’s such a young kid. He came out and hit three in a row, if I’m not mistaken, that popped the game open. So, we’re proud of our guys.”
On the differences in Texas A&M’s team under Buzz Williams…
“I will say this. When there’s a coaching change, you’ve got players that were asked to play a certain way that are now being asked to play differently. I’m a big believer in not judging the product in totality by the team’s record. I’m a big believer in the difference between who they [Texas A&M] were in November and who they are now. When I started watching their last three games, he [Buzz Williams] has those guys going and playing together on offense and defense. So, I watched an old game from earlier this season. The difference is day and night in how they’re playing. The good news for Texas A&M folks is that this development is not changing, it’s only going to keep getting better.”
Junior Guard Jair Bolden
On the defense allowing the three-point shot...
“They played man defense. It’s a scheme that we practiced against and coach prepared us for. Obviously hitting shots against any defense is going to help you win games, but their defense particularly, we practiced that and we knew they were going to plug the gaps in the paint so we need to make extra passes to help ourselves.
On playing 33 minutes after not playing the previous game…
“It feels good. We have a team mentality, we know from one game to the next game we have a lot of talented guys on the team that can play well and step up. Whenever coach calls my number, getting ready and for all the guys to have that mentality and being ready to play.
