COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Tenth-ranked Texas A&M used a 16-3 run midway through the second half to break open a tight game as the Aggies remained undefeated at home with a 71-57 win over LSU here Tuesday night at Reed Arena.
With the win, the Aggies (16-2) remained atop the Southeastern Conference standings with a 6-0 league mark. LSU fell to 11-7 overall and 4-2 in SEC action.
Tim Quarterman came off the bench to lead the Tigers with 12 points, while freshman sensation Ben Simmons posted his 14th double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds. Craig Victor II, despite getting in early foul trouble, added 10 points for the Tigers.
Jalen Jones led the Aggies with 20 points, while Tyler Davis added 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting for Texas A&M. For the game, the Aggies connected on 28-of-58 shots from the floor for 48.3 percent, while LSU managed to hit just 22-of-59 shots for 37.3 percent.
“We played a very tough Texas A&M basketball team tonight,” LSU coach Johnny Jones said. “They did a tremendous job on both ends of the floor both offensively and defensively, which is one of the reasons they are sitting here as a top-10 team in the country.
“I thought in the first half we competed, played extremely hard on both ends. (It’s) a four-point game at halftime and I thought we came back out and fought extremely hard to get it back to a tie game. They did a great job of going on a run; they made some tough shots and got some second chance opportunities.
“On the defensive end, they did a great job of limiting us a lot of times to just one shot and we couldn’t get it going during that stretch.”
The teams traded baskets for most of the first half with the lead exchanging hands eight times during the first 20 minutes of action. LSU took its biggest lead of the game, 29-24, on a Quarterman dunk at 8:34 mark in the first half. The Aggies regained the lead for good at 35-32 on a 3-pointer by Admon Gilder with 3:29 left in the half.
Down 38-34 at halftime, LSU tied the game at 40-40 on a tip-in by Simmons at the 18:08. However, Victor II picked up his fourth foul less than two minutes later and the Tigers were never the same on either end of the floor as the Aggies were able to take advantage of his absence in the paint.
“It exposed us a little bit inside especially with the way he’s been playing,” Jones said of Victor’s foul trouble. “The impact that he’s made on the game for him to have to go to bench early in the second half with his fourth foul that certainly hurt us because we couldn’t defend their big men.
“Craig is somewhat of our enforcer that plays inside, not only on the offensive end but he can put pressure on the team defensively because of his ability score in the paint and we just didn’t have that for long stretches tonight.”
With Victor II on the bench, the Tigers managed to keep the game close, even tying the contest at 44-44 on a layup by Elbert Robinson III at the 15:47 mark.
The Aggies took the lead for good at 46-44 on their next possession when Tavario Miller tipped in an Alex Caruso miss at the 15:23 mark. The game remained a one possession contest for the next two minutes before a pair of Caruso free throws extended the Aggies lead to 50-46.
LSU missed five straight shots and had three turnovers over a five-minute span midway through the second half as the Aggies stretched to lead to double-figures at 60-47 on a 3-pointer by DJ Hogg at the 9:07 mark. The Tigers got their first field goal in a five minute span when Quarterman made a layup at the 7:39 mark to get LSU to within 60-50.
That was as close as the Tigers would get as LSU went another six minutes without a field goal before Brandon Sampson connected on a 3-pointer at the 1:57 mark to cut the deficit to 66-55.
“We missed some layups and had some open looks from the outside that we couldn’t get to go down,” Jones said. “Against a team like this, you have to execute and do a great job of shooting the ball and we didn’t do that for long stretches tonight.
“You have 6 minutes to go and that’s crunch time. Unfortunately for us they went down made some shots, hits some big 3’s and had some scramble plays (that resulted in points). And on our end, we just couldn’t finish.”