No. 22 A&M answers bell vs. Tech as Taylor leads crunch-time effort

FORT WORTH, Texas — Familiarity breeds contempt. It apparently breeds conquests, too.

No. 22 Texas A&M (8-2) held a fragile two-point lead in the final minutes but made clutch plays on both ends down the stretch to capture a coveted “Quadrant 1” victory over Texas Tech (7-2) on Saturday at Dickies Arena, 72-67.

The Aggies didn’t flinch in crunch time. Perhaps that’s because they’ve been in similar situations this season.

“We’ve been in that position a few times,” a relieved A&M coach Buzz Williams said. “Central Florida would have been one. Rutgers would have been one. Creighton would have been one. Wake Forest, I think, would have been one.”

Having been there before, A&M looked to “Four.”

Holding a 60-58 edge with 3:27 remaining, A&M came out of a timeout and immediately went to guard Wade Taylor IV.

“Four,” as Taylor is known, scored on consecutive runners to give the Aggies some breathing room.

The A&M defense then promptly smothered Texas Tech’s high-scoring offense.

Will Huffman, TexAgs

“Since Thanksgiving,” Wade Taylor IV is averaging 19.3 points in three A&M wins.

In the timeout, Williams probably instructed Taylor to attack the basket. Yet, Williams wouldn’t acknowledge Taylor’s scores were by design.

“I’ll never take credit for how good a player [Taylor] is,” he said. “I think the way he has led since a little bit before Thanksgiving is as good as I’ve seen in a long time.

“His willingness to be the best player, to be incredibly intelligent and be able to affect everybody in the program is not a stat, but really important in the stats.”

Taylor’s back-to-back baskets pushed A&M’s lead to 64-58 with 2:36 to play. The Aggies later converted eight consecutive free throws — four from Taylor — to close out their fourth consecutive victory.

Taylor led the Aggies with 19 points. Jace Carter came off the bench to score 16. Zhuric Phelps had 12. Solomon Washington had eight points, six of which came on a couple of vital 3-pointers when Texas Tech was seemingly taking the upper hand.

Yet, the Aggies’ defensive effort was arguably even more impressive.

A&M held Tech, which is the 15th highest-scoring team in the nation, to a season-low in point production.

“To be able to hold a team like that to the score they had … it’s big,” Carter said. “We knew going into the game we knew it was going to be a big point of the game.”

The Aggies limited Tech to 51 total shots. They also forced 18 turnovers, which were parlayed into 18 A&M points.

“I thought our turnovers really caused us the most problems,” Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland said. “You’ve got to get a shot off against them. You’ve got to be consistent.

“Their defense can push you out. I thought we had too many possessions where we just moved it around the perimeter and didn’t get downhill. The quicker you get downhill against them, the quicker you can get them in rotations. We didn’t do a good enough job in that.”

Will Huffman, TexAgs

Jace Carter’s 16 points are the most he has scored in a single game as an Aggie.

The Red Raiders did a good job of coming back from an early deficit.

A&M hit a trio of 3-pointers in the first three minutes on the way to taking a 13-2 lead.

The Aggies maintained a 26-15 lead after Carter hit a triple from the corner with 6:57 left in the half. Carter scored 13 consecutive points for A&M during a span of four-and-a-half minutes.

However, the Red Raiders capitalized on a partisan crowd, which gave the feel of a Texas Tech home game. They converted seven of their last nine field-goal attempts in the first half to pull within 34-31 at the break.

Tech started the second half strong to take an early 41-36 lead. The Red Raiders maintained a 52-49 lead after guard Chance McMillian, who finished with a game-high 23 points, converted a pair of free throws with 8:18 remaining.

Henry Coleman III answered with a layup, and Phelps followed with a 3-pointer to ignite an 11-0 run that gave the Aggies a 60-52 lead.

However, Tech’s Elijah Hawkins and Darrion Williams drilled consecutive 3-pointers to bring the Red Raiders back within 60-58 going into the final automatic timeout.

That’s when the Aggies turned to “Four,” turned up their defense and turned away the Red Raiders.

But the latest victory in a schedule infested with strong “power” conference teams seemed to leave Williams more exhausted than exultant.

“It’s exhausting in a way I can’t articulate,” he said. "I’ve never done this in my career, nor have any of our players.

“The audacity to do it is one thing. But the grind mentally, physically and emotionally to do it game after game… to answer the bell every day and there’s not an escape valve, and there’s not a relief.”

Maybe not. But there was good defense and Wade Taylor down the stretch.

That was enough.