Rutgers men's basketball falls to No. 20 Texas A&M, rues missed opportunities
The first-ever meeting between the Rutgers men’s basketball team and Texas A&M lived up to the hype. In the fifth-place game at the Players Era Festival on Saturday, the Scarlet Knights (5-3, 0-0) fell 81-77 to the Aggies (6-2, 0-0) in a back-and-forth affair that saw 10 lead changes.
The game started very even, with both sides trading baskets. But the tide changed when No. 20 Texas A&M went on a 10-0 scoring run to lead 17-9 at the 12:23 mark. The Aggies were outrebounding the Knights and capitalizing on points in the paint.
Rutgers pulled itself back into the game with a 6-0 scoring run following the U12 media timeout, cutting the deficit to 2 points to trail 21-19.
Texas A&M did enough defensively to hold the Knights off, leading 40-34 at halftime. The Aggies forced Rutgers into 11 turnovers, had 16 points off those aforementioned turnovers and scored 18 points in the paints from eight offensive rebounds.
The Knights committed 16 fouls in the first half, letting Texas A&M get to the free throw line 25 times and score 20 points from the charity stripe. Multiple players, like redshirt senior guard Jeremiah Williams and freshman center Lathan Sommerville, had three fouls after the opening 20 minutes.
Freshman forward Ace Bailey led Rutgers with four rebounds, two steals and 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting.
A quick 9-0 run from the Knights to begin the second half gave them a 43-42 lead, their first lead since the 15:51 mark of the first half. Williams scored 6 of those 9 points – going 3-3 from the floor – including a dunk assisted by freshman guard Dylan Harper.
Rutgers continued its offensive dominance with impressive buckets from Bailey and Harper, making 6 of its last 7 field goal attempts to lead 63-54 at the 12-minute mark of the second half.
Following the U12 media timeout, the Knights hit a cold spell offensively, going on a 4-minute scoring drought as the Aggies sparked an 8-0 scoring run. Williams ended the run with two free throws, but a three from Wade Taylor IV tied the game up at 65-65 with 8:21 to play.
Each team traded the lead six times before a Manny Obaseki dunk gave Texas A&M the 78-77 lead. The Aggies saw the game out with three free throws to finish fifth at the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas.
Bailey had a career-high 24 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for his second career double-double. Williams had 20 points – with 17 coming in the second half – for his most at Rutgers.
"My teammates get me involved, me getting my teammates involved," Bailey said on what led to his performance. "We just rebounded, we needed to rebound today cause (Texas A&M)'s a very good rebounding team, so my goal was just to outrebound, push the ball up the court, get my teammates open and just make plays for others."
The Knights struggled to play a clean game, committing a season-high 29 fouls. Sommerville and junior center Emmanuel Ogbole both fouled out in the second half.
After being outrebounded in the first half, Rutgers ultimately brought down seven more rebounds than Texas A&M, 42-35 overall. The Aggies entered Saturday’s game as the third-best rebounding team in the country and the best offensive rebounding team.
With the three-game Players Era Festival over, the Knights will remain on the road and begin Big Ten play against Ohio State on Saturday. Tip-off is scheduled for noon and will be broadcast on Fox Sports and 88.7 WRSU-FM.
"We learned a lot about different parts of our team but we also played teams that we're gonna see familiar styles coming up," said head coach Steve Pikiell. "We just gotta figure out how to finish some things off."
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