A&M clamps down defensively to rally past Northwestern State, 64-52
In 30 dominant minutes of basketball, Texas A&M appeared to flush away a good measure of doubt, inconsistency and errors.
The Aggies also flushed away an early Northwestern State lead and went on to post a much-needed 64-52 victory on Tuesday night at Reed Arena.
The win snapped a two-game losing streak and removed any bad taste that might have lingered from a 67-62 loss to Wofford a week ago.
“In many respects, in the last 30 minutes, there were a lot of toxins flushed out, and a lot of sensitivity flushed out,” Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams said. “Everybody realized that’s what you have to do in order to win this game.”
The Aggies (7-5) indeed did what they had to do. They allowed Northwestern State (8-5) to convert just 1 of its last 13 attempts from 3-point range. They dominated inside with 36 points in the paint. They grabbed 45 rebounds. And they converted 21-of-27 free throws (77.8 percent).
Henry Coleman led the Aggies with a season-high 24 points. Tyrece Radford posted a double-double with 21 points and 10 rebounds.
And Dexter Dennis, who made just 1-of-9 field goal attempts, compensated by leading the second-half defensive effort to thwart Northwestern State’s trio of 3-point bombers.
Guards DeMarcus Sharp, Isaac Haney and Ja’Monta Black combined for 46 points — 36 of which came via 3-pointers.
But they managed only a combined 15 points in the second half.
“I thought Henry played really well,” Williams said. “I thought Boots was superb. And I thought Dexter guarded whoever was going to be in the Iso ball for 33 minutes and 54 seconds. Pretty impressive to guard the guy that’s going shoot and get six defensive rebounds … really, really good.”
A&M’s charge began midway through the first half after Sharp and Black hit back-to-back treys to give Northwestern State a 27-12 lead.
Northwestern managed only eight more field goals — all 3-pointers — for the remainder of the game. After that run, the visiting Demons converted just 20.5 percent of their field goals (8-of-39) the rest of the way.
Meanwhile, A&M began taking control. Led by Coleman, who had 16 at halftime, the Aggies pulled within 33-28 at halftime.
Their charge coincided with Northwestern’s 7-foot-3 center Jordan Wilmore picking up his third foul with 4:39 left in the half and A&M trailing 30-20.
The Aggies then opened the second half with a 14-3 run to take a 42-36 lead.
Northwestern trailed just 48-45 after Black hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key, but the visitors hit just 1 of their next 10 shots from behind the arc. Consequently, they managed just four points over the next nine minutes.
That enabled the Aggies to take a 60-49 lead on Dennis’ dunk on Andre Gordon’s alley-oop pass with just over two minutes to play.
“We knew coming into the game they were a good shooting team,” Radford said. “They’re going to shoot contested 3’s. At halftime, we didn’t really change what we did. We just changed how we did it. We came out more aggressive.”
That aggression started in the backcourt well before the Demons got to the arc.
“I think some of the changes we made defensively in the front court changed their rhythm a little bit,” Williams said. “Also, I think that the three guys that shoot the most balls are also the three guys on their team that are going to dribble. I think some of those dribbles were a little more contested with what we were doing defensively over the last 30 minutes.
“I’m not saying we got into their legs. They’re really good players, and they’re really potent, offensively. But I do think the fight prior to the shoot effected the shot over the last eight to 10 minutes.”
That was the defensive effort the Aggies seem to have been searching in what has been a disappointing start to the season. They found it not a minute too soon, with Southeastern Conference play just a week away.
“We don’t have a lot of time to kind of mess around and waste days,” Coleman said. “That’s Texas A&M’s best basketball.”
