Aggies dominate sloppy affair vs. Houston Christian

Led by Hayden Hefner’s career-high 24 points, Andersson Garcia’s 19 rebounds — the most for an Aggie in more than three decades — and a whole lot of free throws made, the Aggies (8-4) never trailed but didn’t look impressive either.

A&M plodded their way to a 6-0 lead, but it took nearly 4 minutes to do it. The Aggies then went more than 5 minutes without a basket, but free throws allowed A&M to maintain their lead.

Hefner broke the slump with a 3 with 11:18 to go in the half to give A&M a 15-9 lead that started a personal 7-0 run. But after a Garcia (9 points) layup with 8:23 to go in the half, A&M would go another 4:29 without a field goal.

"Everyone was trying to help me out to get a double-double," Garcia said. "I don't think I've ever had one."

Free throws allowed A&M to push their lead to 10 in the meantime.

The Aggies closed the half on an 9-0 run, with guard Jace Carter (10 points) hitting a 3 and Manny Obaseki adding all 4 of his points on a layup and two free throws. That made the lead 40-21 and it was all over but the fouling.

The Aggies started off slowly from the field in the second half as well, but Hefner made a jumper off the glass, two free throws and a 3 as the Aggies pushed their lead to 25 with 14:45 to go in the game.

"With the amount of shots I've put up and the work I've put in, there's a reason the shots are falling," Hefner said.

When Garcia hit a 3 — punctuated with the kiss of the 3 fingers — to put the Aggies up 54-31 with 12:49 left, the dam broke.

A&M went on a 15-2 run, which included five more free throws. The Aggies would only shoot 35% from the field, but made 28 of 38 free throws -- the second most during coach Buzz Williams' tenure. Two HCU players would foul out in the process.

The Huskies, on the other hand, had trouble hitting anything. HCU shot 33% for the game, including 27% from 3, and only hit half of their 14 free throws. They also turned the ball over 18 times, leading to 25 Aggie points. HCU’s poor shooting turned out to be a boon for Garcia, who had more rebounds in a game than any Aggie since David Harris had 19 in two different games in 1989-90.

"What's the record? 23?" Garcia said with a cocked eyebrow. "Hmm. I wish I had known that."

Williams said that Garcia was "Dennis Rodman from (the Dominican Republic)."

"(Garcia)'s unbelievable," he said.

Williams said going into the Christmas break with a win, as opposed to last year's nightmare loss to Wofford, makes things much more tolerable.

"I'm so thankful that we won and how we won," he said.