By Turner Dawson
The Texas A&M basketball team picked up two huge wins in a big week for the program as they traveled to Colombia, Missouri and ended the Missouri Tigers 32 game home winning streak and then returned home to Beat The Hell Outta Baylor in front of a raucous home crowd at Reed Arena.
On Wednesday, the Aggies were facing a very talented Tigers team in one of the best home courts in the entire country. The Aggies turned to their senior leader Donald Sloan and he came up big on the road. Sloan finished with 17 points and 8 rebounds although he also had 6 turnovers. But he was able to turn it on especially in the second half and was a crucial part of the Aggies comeback.
Dash Harris struggled through this game with tendonitis in his right hand and it showed as he finished with 1 point, 2 assists, and he also had 6 turnovers. The fact that the Aggies overcame 12 turnovers from their starting backcourt is absolutely incredible. As a team they finished with 21 turnovers. The Aggies have been pretty good in this department this season but that’s one thing they cannot do if the hope to win on a consistent basis.
As big as Sloan was in this game, I would say the player of the game was David Loubeau. David finished with 17 points and 8 rebounds including 6 on the offensive end. He was a workhorse, especially in the second half when he scored 12 of his 17 points. The X factor in this game was Kris Middleton who finished with 16 points and knocked down 2 big three pointers.
The Aggies are not a very good offensive team if we’re being completely honest so the Aggies need players like Middleton and B.J. Holmes to step up and knock down open shots. Both players did that in this game and I think they were helped by the fact that they stopped shooting outside so much. The Aggies only attempted 10 threes in this one and really attacked the rim. As a result, they got some great looks and the worst three point shooting team in the Big 12 shot 60% from deep in this one.
True freshman Ray Turner became a cult figure in this game for Aggie fans as he had a huge dunk over Kim English in the second half that really changed the momentum of the game. But what made the biggest difference in this game was the Aggies defense in the second half. The Tigers went without a field goal for over 10 minutes and allowed the Aggies to take the lead. And the Aggies made just enough free throws down the stretch to hold on.
On Saturday, the Aggies played host to the Baylor Bears and the fans at Reed were rocking. The Aggies got out to a really poor start and Bryan Davis in particular played awful to start the game. Davis had 3 turnovers in the first 2 minutes and finished 5 for the game. The Aggies scored just 8 points in the first 10 minutes. It was ugly at the start.
But then the Aggies got it going. Ray Turner came in and scored 7 consecutive points and provided some great energy that sparked a big 10-0 run that got the Aggies within 2. This was a game full of runs. Every time Baylor would make a run and start to pull away, we would narrow the gap. The Aggies had to fight back multiple times before B.J. Holmes hit 3 big three pointers to help take the lead.
Despite the poor start by Bryan Davis, he was an absolute man the rest of the game. He finished with 22 points and 8 rebounds, including what I can only explain as a miracle, 8 for 9 from the free throw line. Bryan still drives me crazy sometimes with how turnover prone he is, but he is a crucial piece to this team in the middle.
On another note, Baylor’s Josh Lomers managed to elbow Bryan Davis in the face, kick him in the head, and finish the game with more fouls, 4, than points, 3. Man I’m going to miss that guy.
Loubeau helped to form a dynamic duo in the middle for the Aggies as he finished with 13 points and 5 rebounds. Coach Turgeon has been reluctant to play Davis and Loubeau together this year because they are our only true big men and he was trying to avoid them getting into foul trouble. But Ray Turner was cleared at the start of the spring semester by the clearing house and that has allowed Turgeon to feel more comfortable playing Davis and Loubeau together. They do very well with Loubeau in the high post and Davis in the low post. It’s when Davis drifts up to the high post that bad things seem to happen.
Despite the fact that Baylor played a lot of zone, the Aggies were forced to try and play inside out against it because there shooting has been so bad this season. Those shooting woes continued in this game as the Aggies were just 4 for 18 from three point range. However, they really stepped up in this game and shot 28 for 33 from the free throw line including 14 for 16 in the final four minutes. That proved to be the difference in this game.
The Aggies are now 6-3 in conference play and are tied for second in the Big 12 and are looking good for the NCAA tournament. At this point the Aggies are playing to get a better seed in the bracket. This next week the Aggies will travel to Lubbock to take on Texas Tech before playing host to top ranked Kansas in a Big Monday matchup on ESPN. Personally, I would be happy with wining one out of two this week, but a win against Kansas would be huge for this program.