COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The Texas A&M men’s basketball team realized Wednesday time is running out to make something out of its season.
That’s why the Aggies cited “sense of urgency” in every huddle in an attempt to find the spark that would take them through the stretch run.
The motivation worked for at least one night, as Jamal Jones scored a team-high 20 points to help Texas A&M snap a five-game losing streak with a 72-52 victory against Mississippi State on Wednesday night before 4,626 fans in Reed Arena.
Kourtney Roberson added 14 points for the Aggies (13-9, 4-5 SEC), who avenged an 81-72 overtime loss in Starkville, Miss., on Jan. 18 that kicked off the Aggies’ losing streak.
“We’ve been talking about a sense of urgency in the past three days,” said A&M guard Alex Caruso, who tallied a game-high 10 assists. “Even with three minutes left and we were up by 15, we were saying, ‘Let’s have a sense of urgency.'”
MSU, in playing its first game in history in College Station, traded leads with Texas A&M until early in the second half, when the Aggies pulled away thanks to a relentless 16-0 run. A&M’s defense held the Bulldogs scoreless for more than 10 minutes in that stretch — from the 16-minute, 26-second mark (36-35) to 6:08 (52-37).
“I was really disappointed with our effort,” said Bulldogs coach Rick Ray, whose program has lost 14 games in a row on the road, including six this season, dating to last season. “I thought we had as bad a first half as we’ve had all season, but I was still optimistic, because as bad as we played it was still a tie ballgame (at 26-26).
“Then we played even worse in the second half. We’ve got to figure out where our competitive spirit is, especially on the defensive end, if we want to win ballgames.”
The Aggies shot poorly from the 3-point line early (1 of 12 in the first half but 6 of 18 overall), but pulled away late by outscoring the Bulldogs 40-14 in the paint and 22-1 in points off turnovers.
“We finished around the basket, got some open 3-pointers and we made them, and we shared the ball,” said coach Billy Kennedy, who’s trying to lead the Aggies into the postseason for the first time in his three seasons. “We competed at a high level, and we haven’t done that the last couple of games. We got better.”
The game’s highlight occurred when A&M freshman Davonte Fitzgerald blocked a fast-break layup attempt by Fred Thomas that prompted a roar from the sparse crowd more than midway through the second half, with A&M clutching a 47-35 lead.
“He sprinted back — we had talked about no layups all week, because we’d given up too many layups,” Kennedy said. “He showed some athleticism in that instance.”
No MSU player reached double digits in scoring until Thomas sank a 3-pointer with 3:20 remaining. He and Craig Sword paced the Bulldogs (13-9, 3-6) with 10 points each. The loss was the fourth in a row for MSU.
“We’re not a very good scoring team, and that’s been typical for us,” Ray said. “We don’t have a guy to go to. We try to get the ball inside, but people just pack it in against us.”
The Aggies also forced 17 MSU turnovers while committing only six of their own, in tying a season low. In addition, the Aggies’ 18 of 26 field goals in the final 20 minutes marked their top shooting half of the season.
“Recently I’ve been getting in the gym more because I’ve been in a slump,” said Jones, who scored 15 of his 20 points in the second half. “So much so that Coach Kennedy told me I need to slow down a little and save my legs.”
The Bulldogs return home for consecutive contests against No. 18 Kentucky and Georgia on Saturday and Wednesday, respectively, while the Aggies play at Georgia on Saturday and return to Reed for a Wednesday contest against LSU.
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