No. 8 Aggies push streak to five with 69-61 victory over Arkansas
Every star needs a co-star.
Texas A&M has a veritable constellation of co-stars for All-SEC guard Wade Taylor IV. The Aggies have so many, in fact, that before each basketball game, a side bet could be placed on which co-star would shine brightest.
Forward Andersson Garcia was the winning bet on Saturday at Reed Arena as the No. 8 Aggies (20-5, 9-3) rolled to a 69-61 Southeastern Conference victory over previously surging Arkansas (15-10, 4-8).
Garcia assisted Taylor on a tie-breaking 3-pointer and scored back-to-back driving layups in a pivotal 9-0 run, which enabled the Aggies’ winning streak to reach five.
“I thought Andy played with incredible poise, obviously, Tuesday (in a 69-53 victory over Georgia). I thought some of that was taking place again today,” A&M head coach Buzz Williams said. “There was some new stuff we put in on Thursday morning that I thought was good for us. I thought the guys had really good confidence in it.”
It was Garcia’s confidence in Taylor that started the decisive run.
Locked in a 50-50 tie, Taylor was in-bounding the basketball under the Arkansas basket. He passed to Garcia in the left corner and then headed out to the right wing.
Garcia moved down the baseline, seemingly to attempt a layup. Instead, at the last minute, he rifled a pass to a wide-open Taylor. Taylor, who scored a game-high 18 points and had nine assists, drilled the 3-pointer, which ignited the Aggies.
“I was supposed to finish at the rim,” Garcia said. “But sometimes even if I have an open layup and I see one of my teammates — one of them in specific — at the 3-point line, wide open, I’m probably going to pass the ball to them. I’m not saying that I’m bad at shooting layups, but I trust them a lot to make those shots.”
Garcia didn’t pass on any other opportunities. He aggressively attacked the rim on the next three possessions. Two resulted in layups.
When he did miss, Henry Coleman III scored on a put-back to give the Aggies a 59-50 lead with 5:08 remaining.
The Aggies maintained at least a seven-point lead the rest of the way.
Garcia, who finished with 11 points, was by no means the only co-star.
Zhuric Phelps scored 12 points and had nine rebounds. Solomon Washington had a couple of big blocks. Pharrel Payne and Henry Coleman III had strong inside drives that would ultimately force Arkansas coach John Calipari to remove 7-foot-2 Zvonimir Ivišic from the game, which compromised the Razorbacks offensively.
Ivišic scored 52 points in the Razorbacks’ two previous games. He was limited to 13. Six of those came on 3-pointers in the last two-and-a-half minutes when Arkansas was futilely trying to overcome an 11-point deficit.
Calipari acknowledged Garcia’s impact when the game swung in A&M’s favor.
“He attacks the rim if you leave your feet,” Calipari said of Garcia. “Rule No. 2: You’re not leaving your feet on Garcia. Please go back and look at those three possessions. You’re going to say, ‘Oh my god, they left their feet on all three.’
“We did a lot of this to ourselves. But A&M is a really good team, and they have figured out the most important thing when you’re coaching… how to win games.”
Calipari said Rule No. 1 was to shoot from the baseline.
The Razorbacks did that early and opened a quick 8-0 lead. But A&M’s defense eventually took a toll. The Aggies forced 17 turnovers, which were parlayed into 22 points. They also limited Arkansas to 41.7 percent shooting (20 of 48).
“Let’s give credit to A&M,” Calipari said. “They played and pressured and did stuff to make us turn it over. We had one rule going into this game. If you drive baseline, shoot the ball. Shoot it. What did we do? Turned it over.”
The Aggies capitalized on the Arkansas miscues to rally for a 33-28 halftime lead.
“We were a little slow in the beginning, but we try to let our defense do all the work,” Phelps said. “If we’re not scoring, we’ve got to play defense still. Just getting those stops. We knew the offense was going to come at some point in the game.”
The Aggies appeared on the verge of taking command early in the second quarter. Payne easily drove past Ivišic for a dunk to stake A&M to a 39-32 lead with 17:51 to play.
Arkansas finally hit a hot streak and rallied to forge a 50-50 tie.
But that’s when Garcia found Taylor the 3-pointer that led to A&M pulling away for a better-than-it-may-appear triumph.
Though Arkansas’ overall record is rather modest, the Razorbacks had won three of their previous four games. They’re hopeful their late surge could enable them to sneak into the NCAA Tournament field.
Calipari even said a victory over A&M likely would have put the Razorbacks in. He may be right.
Earlier on Saturday, the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee posted a preview bracket that had A&M as a No. 2 seed and ranked sixth overall behind Auburn, Alabama, Duke, Florida and Tennessee.
“I wish the season was over today,” Williams said. “That would be great.”