As expected.
In a return to "guarantee" non-conference action, Texas A&M (8-4) handled a hapless Houston Christian (2-9) with ease, 79-52, on Friday night in College Station.
"We're judged differently over the last three years," A&M head coach Buzz Williams said. "We don't know exactly how we're judged because they won't release the formula, but you can deduce a lot if you watch it enough and study enough.
"It's a difficult position to be in as a coach in trying to force maturity in the last 10 minutes of a game like that. I thought that our guys were phenomenal at it."
The most important takeaway from a 27-point win is avoiding a letdown vs. the No. 357-ranked team in the all-important NET.
"I'm so thankful that we won, but how we won," Williams said.
The decisive victory came despite HCU limiting Wade Taylor IV to 10 points. Additionally, A&M was without the services of Tyrece Radford and Wildens Leveque.
But Hayden Hefner went off for 24, including three treys.
Jace Carter had a 10-point, 12-rebound double-double, while Andersson Garcia grabbed a ridiculous 19 boards — the most rebounds by an Aggie since David Harris in 1990.
"It was his first college start, and I think he's Dennis Rodman from Colombia," Williams said of the Dominican. "I think he's unbelievable. I think he impacts the game without the ball more than, for sure, any player I've coached."
Craig Bisacre/Texas A&M Athletics
With his 19 rebounds on Friday, Garcia is now averaging 8.3 boards per game.
Garcia also fell one point shy of his first career double-double.
"Everybody was trying to help me to be able to have that feeling for the first time," Garcia said. "Everybody was trying to help me have that feeling, and I didn't have it."
As expected, A&M’s speed and defensive aggression forced HCU into 18 turnovers.
A&M’s relentless rebounding efforts turned into a 22-9 advantage on the offensive glass.
The never-in-doubt nature of the outcome allowed Williams the freedom to tinker with different rotations.
"Seventy percent of it was planned, 30 percent of it was on the fly," Williams said. "I actually think all of those guys handled all of that in a really mature way."
In total, 10 Aggies played. Eight earned double-digit minutes.
Frequent lineup changes were expected, yet unexpected.
"We didn't really practice some of those lineups," Hefner admitted. "We knew that going into the game that we were going to have to work on seeing who can play with who, who can be mature enough to do their job, and I think we did a good job in maintaining that same composure and maturity throughout the entire game."
Even with constant changes in personnel and a slow start, A&M never trailed.
However, the Huskies remained within range for longer than anticipated as A&M missed its first four 3-point attempts and was just 3-of-12 from the field over the first 9:42 of play.
Then Hefner drilled a corner triple. He quickly added another as A&M slowly pulled away.
Craig Bisacre/Texas A&M Athletics
Friday was Carter’s first double-double as an Aggie. He registered four such outings last season at Illinois-Chicago.
"It was same old, same old," Hefner said of his performance. "Just trying to believe in yourself. Same shots. Just making those shots and believing that every shot you do put up has a pretty good chance of going in."
With less than four minutes before halftime, Garcia's leaping steal-turned-assist found Carter for a transition jam.
That ignited the Reed Arena crowd of 5,475.
It also began an 11-2 run to close the first period as A&M took a 40-21 edge into the break.
Just over two minutes into the second half, a Carter layup put A&M up 44-24.
The lead never again dipped below 20.
A Henry Coleman III layup with 8:30 remaining pushed it to 30, but a way-too-late trio of HCU 3-pointers trimmed a significant-to-some 35-point A&M advantage.
"Whenever we were going into halftime, (Williams) just wanted to keep us grounded," Hefner said. "Yeah, we might be up by a lot... Just keep us grounded. Just keep us focused.”
With the victory, the Aggies enter a holiday break on a positive as one game remains until the SEC opener on Jan. 6.
"Last year, we lost to Wofford, and we had to deal with that the entire time that we were at home with our families," Hefner said. "It didn't even feel like a break, so being able to get a win like this and doing the things we did — dominating on what we wanted to dominate on — I think it just gives everybody a good feeling."
As needed. As expected.
