Coach Oats says Alabama is “embarrassed” after loss to Texas A&M
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The No. 25/24 Alabama men’s basketball team fell, 87-71, in its home finale on Wednesday to Texas A&M. The Aggies took advantage of an early second-half run to capture the lead for good after a back-and-forth first half.
Alabama had three players reach double figures, led by Jaden Shackelford’s 16 points. Jahvon Quinerly posted 14 points as Keon Ellis has 13 points and two steals.
The Aggies were led by Quenton Jackson’s 28 points as Tyrece Radford put up 22 points and eight rebounds and three steals.
HEAD COACH NATE OATS POSTGAME COMMENTS
“I thought we needed to give a better effort than we did. Give Texas A&M a ton of credit, They went through a stretch where they had a lot of losses in the month of February and for them to still be together and playing as hard as they are says a lot about the job their staff is doing with the character of the players, so I give them a ton of credit. I mean, they outrebounded us, turned us over 19 times, mainly they won the effort, the tough stuff. They beat us on second chance points 13-2. They had 29 points off of our 19 turnovers. We knew it was going to be hard. The keys going into the game were going to play hard defensively. Well, our defense was a disaster and we gave up 50 points in the second half. We had to take care of the ball. We turned it over 19 times. We needed to rebound the ball better, but we only got six offensive boards and only two second chance points and they get 13 second chance points. We ended up with 24 rebounds which was a season low for us. So we didn’t do a good job with any of the stuff we tried to stress. I have got to figure out a better way to motivate our guys. We have got to figure out a better group to start the second half. We’ve been starting the second half poorly. We came out of the half without enough energy. It’s a disappointing loss. We’ve got to regroup and try to play much better at LSU.”
TEAM STATS
The win was the fourth consecutive for the Aggies over the Crimson Tide in the head-to-head series
Texas A&M took advantage of 19 Alabama turnovers, scoring 28 points
Alabama grabbed a season-low 24 rebounds in the loss and was outrebounded in the contest by nine boards, 33-24
It was the seventh time this season the Tide allowed an SEC opponent to score over 80 points in a game
FIRST HALF
The game opened at an even pace as the two teams traded points, notching seven ties and eight lead changes across the opening 20 minutes of play
A 13-6 run provided the Tide with its biggest lead of the half at six points, 40-34, with under a minute to play
A three pointer by the Aggies would cut the UA advantage back to three at the break, 40-37
Shackelford led the half with 12 points, going 3-of-6 from distance and a perfect 3-of-3 from the charity stripe
Bediako added six points along with three blocks, three rebounds and a steal
SECOND HALF
After hitting a three pointer to end the first half, Texas A&M opened the second half by scoring eight consecutive points, turning it into an 11-0 run to take a 45-40 lead with over 17 minutes remaining
The Tide trimmed it to a one possession game at 49-47 at the 15:14 mark, but the Aggies scored seven of the next 10 points to take a 56-50 lead with just over 12 minutes left to play
Trailing by five, 59-54, A&M put the game away going on a 10-2 spurt to take a 13-point lead at 69-56 with seven minutes remaining
Texas A&M held its lead outscoring the Tide 18-15 as time expired
Ellis scored 10 points while pulling down three boards as Quinerly tallied nine points and two assists
