Taylor summits A&M's all-time scoring list in 66-52 win in Baton Rouge

BATON ROUGE, La. — The inevitable took less than six minutes to arrive on Saturday afternoon.

Star guard Wade Taylor IV broke the Texas A&M basketball career scoring record to punctuate a grand career.

It was almost two grand.

Taylor, needing nine points to surpass Bernard King’s record 1,990 career points, scored 17. In doing so, he pulled within one point of 2,000 in a 66-52 Southeastern Conference basketball victory over LSU.

Taylor made his first four field goal attempts, including a spectacular 3-pointer from near the A&M bench to break the record with 14:19 still showing in the first half.

The play started with Zhuric Phelps missing a jumper. Pharrel Payne, on the baseline, slapped the offensive rebound out toward the sideline, where Taylor ran it down, set and launched the long shot that hit nothing but net.

“That’s how we play off a rebound or off a loose ball,” Taylor said. “If you’ve got it and it feels good to you, shoot it.

“I did not know that shot was for the record until I made it, and I heard the crowd go crazy and the bench go crazy. It kind of just hit me … ‘Oh, man, I broke it.’”

Taylor was indeed amazing, yet on this memorable night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, he was upstaged by A&M’s second-half defensive effort.

The No. 22 Aggies (22-9, 11-7) earned redemption for a lackluster first half by completely shutting down LSU (14-17, 3-15) on the offensive end.

The Tigers made just one of their first 14 field goal attempts in the second half as the Aggies turned a halftime deficit into an emphatic victory.

“I thought we were really bad in the first half in every possible way,” A&M coach Buzz Williams said. "I thought LSU just completely dominated us on the glass. We were not very good in any possible way. We turned it over four times, I think, in a row.

“I do think we responded much better in the second half. I thought we played more to our recipe. I thought we did a much better job of taking predictable shots and doing a good job on both sides of the glass.”

Led by Taylor, who hit his first four shots, the Aggies were scorching hot to start. They took a 19-9 lead on an Andersson Garcia put-back with 12:20.

Then they went from white-hot to ice-cold. They committed six turnovers, missed seven field goal attempts and managed only a lone Solomon Washington free throw over the next seven minutes.

LSU, which hit 10 first-half free throws, capitalized with a 21-1 run. That put A&M in a 29-20 deficit with 5:39 left in the half.

However, the Aggies fought back and pulled within 32-30 at halftime. Then, A&M outscored LSU 23-5 to start the second half and settle the issue.

Henry Coleman III had a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds to complement Taylor. Also, Garcia had eight points and 10 boards. Washington had nine points.

Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

With Saturday’s win, Buzz Williams and the Aggies finished the regular season with a 22-9 overall record and an 11-7 mark in SEC play.

LSU was led by guard Jordan Sears with 21, but only five came in the second half.

“I thought that they were beating us in every category (in the first half),” Williams said. “They were beating us off the bounce. We fouled more in the first half than any half we have fouled in. Fouling 3-point shooters. Fouling them off the bounce. Fouling off the rim.

“We were just spinning around. We were in rotation constantly. We were not as energetic or as committed to what you have to do to beat any team.”

That frustration was then transferred to LSU. A&M outrebounded LSU 28-13 in the second half and limited the Tigers to just 22.2 percent (6-of-27) from the field.

“Without being too simplistic, we tried a little harder in the second half,” Williams said. “We stayed out of rotation, and we were executing what our plan was initially.”

Of course, initially, the attention from Aggies was on Taylor, a soon-to-be three-time All-SEC selection, and his pursuit of the scoring record.

The Tigers put 6-foot-3 guard Mike Williams III on him and often double-teamed him in hopes of delaying the inevitable. They didn’t.

“He’s been guarded every possible way you can dream of,” Buzz Williams said. “In a ball screen. Off the ball. On the ball. And he’s continued to grow in his knowledge and still be able to  perform and execute when he’s probably at the top of most scouting reports regardless of who we play.”

It didn’t matter. Taylor hit a 3-pointer from the right wing on the game’s first shot. Two minutes later, he banked in a runner. A record-tying 3-pointer from the left wing followed less than a minute later.

Then came the remarkable shot that ended Bernard King’s scoring reign.

Although Taylor surpassed King’s record on four shots in the first six minutes, he said that wasn’t necessarily by design.

“That’s just kind of how it presented itself,” Taylor said. “I just wanted to win today. We know how hard it is to win at LSU and how good their team still is. We just wanted to come out here and make sure we left with a win.”

He got the record and the win. It was inevitable.