No. 20 Aggies finish Players Era with a 81-77 victory over Rutgers

Rolled the dice and won.

No. 20 Texas A&M (6-2) won a back-and-forth thriller over Rutgers (5-3), 81-77, in the fifth-place game at the Players Era Festival to finish 2-1 on their trip out west.

True freshmen and future top-five picks Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey came into Saturday’s game averaging 24.6 and 17.8 points per game this season.

The duo had combined to score 51.7 percent of the Knights’ points this season, and they did it again against the Aggies, scoring 42 of their 77 points – 54.5 percent.

In a back-and-forth start to the game, Solomon Washington’s two blocks in the first five minutes set the tone for A&M’s first-half defense. This served as foreshadowing for how the game would end.

Executing their physical strategy on both ends of the floor, A&M shot a season-high 25 first-half free throws and made a season-high 80 percent.

Warding off a late 6-0 Rutgers run, the Maroon & White took a six-point lead into the half, 40-34.

The second half started just how the first ended, except the Aggies couldn’t answer the run.

Zoe Kelton, TexAgs

One of the best scorers in school history, Wade Taylor IV had a team-high 24 points in the win.

Rutgers’ 13-0 run in two minutes gave them a five-point lead, and they went on to outscore the Aggies 23-11 before the first media timeout. The Scarlet Knights matched 67 percent of their first-half scoring output in 25 percent of the time.

It’s impossible to keep the future NBA stars down for long. In the blink of an eye, Bailey, Harper and Jeremiah Williams combined for 50 points to A&M’s 54. The trio would finish with 62.

Trailing by nine with 11 minutes left, Wade Taylor IV and Washington forced an 8-0 run that shifted the momentum and the course of the game.

On the following possession, Taylor knocked down A&M’s first triple of the game to tie it at 65 with eight minutes left.

On the next possession, his second triple gave the Aggies the lead back, the first of 12 lead changes and ties in the last eight minutes.

On track to allow their most points of the season, the Aggie defense tightened up, holding the Knights scoreless for the final 3:10. They made just one of their last seven shots.

Manny Obaseki’s dunk with 2:07 left gave the Aggies a 78-77 lead.

Taylor’s two free throws cemented the lead at 80-77.

Washington did the rest.

His fourth block of the game was his biggest, stuffing the future lottery pick Harper on the Knights’ final possession to seal the deal, 81-77.

Rallying from nine points down in the second half, the Aggies finished the game outscoring Rutgers 27-14 to finish 2-1 in Las Vegas.

Next, the Aggies will host Wake Forest at Reed Arena on Tuesday at 8 p.m. CT in the SEC/ACC Challenge.

Former A&M player Antanas Kavaliauskas is an assistant coach for the Demon Deacons and will return to College Station for the first time since the NIT Quarterfinals in 2022.