Texas A&M's freshmen dazzle in 104-64 season-opening win

It’s always important to make a good first impression.

Texas A&M’s celebrated freshman class certainly did on Friday night in a 104-64 college basketball season-opening victory over South Carolina Upstate.

The four fish — D.J. Hogg, Tyler Davis, Elijah Thomas and Admon Gilder — were more like sharks on a feeding frenzy. They all scored in double figures and combined for 63 points. One more basket and they could have outscored the visiting Spartans by themselves

“Those guys can score the basketball,” A&M’s All-SEC senior guard Danuel House said. “We have six guys in double figures ... four were freshmen. That’s pretty impressive.”

Whether it was Hogg nailing five three-point goals, Davis dominating inside, Thomas stepping up to block a shot on the wing or Gilder driving the baseline for a reverse layup, the freshman foursome thoroughly impressed the 6,552 assembled at Reed Arena.

Hogg's five three-pointers contributed to a game-high 20 points. Davis scored 16 points and had seven rebounds. Gilder hit four three-pointers and had 16 points. Thomas, who did not practice until last Monday because of a sprained foot, had 11 points and five rebounds.

“I was a little nervous, first college game,” Hogg said. “The stands were packed, but at State (the state tournament) they were packed too. I just played my game and played hard.”

Of course, the veteran Aggies made their presence felt, too.

House scored 15 points, sophomore Tonny Trocha-Morelos had 12 and Alex Caruso had five points and six assists.

New point guard Anthony Collins, a senior transfer from South Florida, had eight assists.

The Aggies shot 66.7 percent from the field, hit 13 three-pointers and held a 46-28 rebounding advantage. They also outscored Upstate 46-28 in the paint.

“It’s fun to see good players play,” A&M coach Billy Kennedy said. “Our seniors do a good job getting them the ball in places they can score. Anthony Collins and Alex Caruso combined for 14 assists. (The freshmen) are good players and they’re all going to get better. Elijah practiced one week in the past three or four weeks. You can tell he’s going to help us.”

South Carolina Upstate was led by 6-5 junior forward Josh Cuthbertson with 15 points and seven rebound and 6-11 junior center Michael Buchanan with 10 points and five boards.
 
True, South Carolina Upstate isn’t the strongest competition and is rebuilding, but the Spartans did post 24 victories last season including wins over Georgia Tech and Mississippi State.

“That’s the best team we’ve played since five years ago when we played at Ohio State,” Upstate coach Eddie Payne said. They have experienced guards that don’t turn it over. They have shooters that can shoot over you and bigs that can score down low.

“We did a few good things, but every time we did something good they did something better. I’m not sure I knew they were as good as they were.”

The Aggies, playing without All-SEC forward Jalen Jones — who is sitting out four games because of NCAA transfer rules — showed just how good they can be in a three-and-a-half minute span midway through the first quarter.

They converted seven consecutive shots — including four consecutive three-pointers — to settle the issue early.

Hogg scored a reverse baseline layup with 14:39 to give the Aggies a 12-8 lead; Tavario Miller followed with a layup and House scored a layup on the baseline.

Then House hit a three-pointer. Then Gilder did. Then, Hogg hit back-to-back three-pointers from the left corner.

Just like that the Aggies were cruising with a 28-14 lead with 11:25 showing in the half.

Afterward, the Aggies put on a show for the crowd with a continued showing of three-pointers, a couple of alley-oops and other dunks.

The lead eventually swelled to 42 points, 97-55, on a Tavario Miller dunk with 3:19 to play. The crowd roared about a minute later when Kyle Dobbins hit a free throw to bring the Aggies’ score into triple digits.

“What’s good about our team is we have seniors with freshmen,” Kennedy said. “The seniors can take the hit, so if the freshmen make a mistake it’s not glaring.

“It was a good start. We turned it over more than we would have liked, but the pace of play is what we wanted to play.”

As good as the first impression was, House said his task was now to convince his first-year teammates to forget it and focus on Monday night’s game against Southeastern Louisiana.

“We can be possibly a top-25 team if we play the right way,” House said. “We’ve got to let this game go. We have to instill in freshmen to have fun tonight, but let it go because we have a game on Monday.”