Trojans Drop Heartbreaker at Texas A&M

Wednesday, November 20

College Station, Texas

7 p.m.

Troy University

1-4,0-0Sun Belt

Texas A&M

3-1,0-0SEC

Troy University

Texas A&M

Photo by: Andrew Stern

11/20/2019 10:26:00 PM | Basketball (M)

Box Score

By: Troy Athletics Communications

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- The Troy Trojans men's basketball program took SEC foe Texas A&M to the wire Wednesday evening at Reed Arena, giving the Aggies all they could handle in a 56-52 set-back.

The Trojans (1-4), who enjoyed an eight-point halftime advantage, held the Aggies (3-1) to just 5-of-26 from the floor in first half and to just 17-53 for the game. Texas A&M didn't record a point over the final four minutes of the first half or a field goal over the final 4:16 of the game.

The difference in the game proved to be the foul-line, as the home side enjoyed a 14-point advantage at the free-throw stripe. Troy was 3-of-9 from the line, while A&M was 17-23.

Junior Darian Adams scored a game-high and career-high 20 points (8-19) and added four rebounds, while Ty Gordon added seven points and four rebounds in 25 strong minutes. The point-guard was one of three Trojans to record a positive +/- on the evening.

The Aggies were led by Mark French who had 12 points and connected on 4-of-6 free throws and Josh Nebo who added 14 points, 12 rebounds and five blocks.

Troy started the first half of the game on fire on the defensive end, as the Trojans forced six Texas A&M turnovers over the first eight minutes of the game, to enjoy an early 12-5 advantage.

After seeing the lead dwindled to just two points (19-17) with 4:19 remaining in the half, the Trojans responded with a 6-0 run to close the half with a 25-17 advantage.

In the second half, Texas A&M responded after being down nine (28-19) 59 seconds into the half, using a 13-3 run over the next five minutes to take a one-point advantage.

The Trojans and Aggies continued to battle down the stretch, with neither team grabbing more than a one-possession advantage for the next 10 minutes of play.

Texas A&M used one last 12-0 run to open up a nine-point advantage with 74 seconds to play. The Trojans didn't quit over the next 60 seconds, answering with another late 8-2 run to cut the Aggie advantage to three with just over 12 ticks to play.

On the next defensive sequence, the Trojans forced the final A&M timeout, before the ball was in-bounded to Jay Jay Chandler who was fouled and nailed both free throw attempts.

Gordon again made it a 3-point deficit on a layup with three seconds to go, but A&M was able to inbound the ball one last time, and connected on one last free throw to seal the game.

Troy returns to action on Saturday afternoon, visiting Samford. Tip-off from the Pete Hanna Center is slated for 2 p.m.

INSIDE THE BOXSCORE:
• The Trojans led for 30 minutes and 56 seconds tonight.
• Troy's 28-19 lead tied for the largest lead enjoyed by either side.
• Tyrek Williams and Davion Thomas were the other two Trojans who recorded a positive plus-minus.
• The Trojans held Texas A&M to 19.2 percent from the field in the first half. A&M responded by going 12-of-27 in the second half (44 percent) from the field.
• Troy made four more field goals (21) than Texas A&M (17) and two more 3-pointers (7).
• Texas A&M missed more free throws (4) in the second half than Troy attempted (3). A&M shot 13-17 from the line in the final period, and 5-of-8 in the final minute.
• Adams recorded his fourth game of at least 10 points.
• The Montgomery native made four 3-pointers tonight which ties his career-high. He has hit four threes' in three times this year.
• Three of Troy's four losses are by a combined 11 points. Troy dropped a one-point heartbreaker against UAB, before dropping a six-point decision to Chattanooga.
• KJ Simon added double-digit rebounds for the second consecutive game.
• The Trojans led the second-chance points 17-7.
• Troy's bench outscored A&M's 23-10.
• The three-made free throws are the fewest a Troy team has made since last Mar. 7 at App State. In that game Troy went 3-of-3.
• Zay Williams was limited to just 17 minutes of action due to a knee injury. He missed the final eight minutes and 48 seconds of the first half. He did return in the second half and played 11 minutes, but he was 0-2 from the floor.

HEAD COACH SCOTT CROSS:
"We played extremely hard tonight and our guys did everything we could ask for as a coaching staff. Despite the loss tonight was another step in the right direction for us. A&M really picked up their defensive intensity in the second half and gave us some trouble. We've been in some tight ballgames and haven't gotten the result, which is exactly what happened tonight. We didn't really execute in the second half, but you have to credit Texas A&M. They played really tough on the defensive end. Zay got a bit banged up and was able to play a bit in the second half, but he was clearly not the same player. Even still we had opportunities to win the game. Davion 'Tree' Thomas and Tyrek played well in his absence and did a solid job for us. Nebo was the difference maker in the game tonight. We definitely didn't want him to get under us in the pick-and-roll and a couple of times he got offensive rebounds and put-backs. We struggled at times to defend him but I thought our guys did a good job defensively."