COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS— Dexter Dennis had 11 points and 16 rebounds for Texas A&M Wednesday night, but his biggest contribution to the Aggies’ 54-52 win was holding his ground.
Dennis’ tough defense on Florida guard Myreon Jones forced a weak 3-point attempt as time expired and allowed the Aggies (13-5, 5-0 SEC) to sweep a very physical two-game series against the Gators (10-8, 3-3 SEC). A&M won 66-63 in Gainesville on Jan. 4.
“I think everything was hard. Everything on both ends was hard,” A&M coach Buzz Williams said.
The game should not have been close, as the Aggies held Florida to 8% shooting from the floor in the first half for a total of just 12 points.
“I thought we were good as we could possibly be in the first half,” Williams said.
Those 12 points was the lowest first half total in a conference game for an A&M opponent since at least the 1996-97 season.
“Normally when you make two shots from the field, you’re usually down 30,” Florida coach Todd Golden said.
That 2-25 shooting performance was bad, but the Aggies weren’t much better. A&M shot 33% from the field and only had 23 points themselves, with forward Julius Marble scoring 11 of them.
“Offensively, they were looking for me,” Marble (19 points) said. “I was getting comfortable in the paint.”
Florida center Carlton Castleton made sure the Aggies weren’t comfortable in the paint after halftime, blocking Marble, Henry Coleman and Wade Taylor in the paint as Florida started to whittle away at A&M’s 11-point halftime lead.
Castleton had 13 of his 14 points, 6 rebounds and 4 blocks in the second half on the way to a 14 point, 13 rebound and 6 block performance — the first player to put up a stat sheet of that kind since Kentucky’s Anthony Davis in 2012.
The Gators cut the Aggie lead several times to 4 in the second half, but had trouble getting much closer. Marble scored a layup and picked up a foul on Castleton off a brilliant pass from Taylor (8 points) to push the Aggie lead to 46-40 with 5:56 left, but both teams then went into a prolonged scoring funk.
Florida was able to cut the lead to 2 with 2:17 to go in the game, but Taylor made the second of 15 attempts from the floor to give the Aggies a 48-44 lead with 1:58 left. Castleton responded with a dunk off an alley-oop15 seconds later, cutting the lead back down to 2.
On A&M’s next possession, Taylor missed a 3-pointer, but Dennis grabbed the offensive rebound. Another Taylor miss was rebounded by freshman forward Solomon Washington, and Taylor was eventually fouled and sent to the line.
After Taylor made both free throws to make the score 50-46, Florida’s Riley Kugel hit a 3 after two Gators offensive rebounds. But on the next possession, Alex Fudge ran over Taylor to send him to the line for two more free throws with 23 seconds left, which he converted.
Florida hustled down the court, but Jones missed a layup. Castleton grabbed the rebound but was blocked by Andersson Garcia, leading to a slam dunk on the other end by guard Boots Radford, sending the crowd of 12,126 at Reed Arena into a frenzy.
The Gators didn’t go away. They quickly got the ball up the court and Jones fired up a long-distance 3 to cut the lead back to 2 with 4 seconds left.
“We just got distracted…we got caught up in the rah-rah and let that affect us on defense,” Marble said.
The Aggies promptly turned the ball over, giving Florida possession just outside the 3-point line with 2.5 seconds left.
“I made it too hard on (Garcia),” Williams said. “I should have called time out. We need (Taylor) out there.”
Golden said the Gators had three different options on the final play, including a lob to Castleton for the tie or a 3 for the win. But the Aggies were waiting.
“We figured that they’d shoot a 3 or get it in to Castleton,” Marble said.
The Aggie defense clamped down on Castleton and took away other options, forcing Jones to shoot over Dennis, who prevented him from getting him a good look.
“A situation like that, you have to be really fundamental. I was basically thinking, ‘What would I do in that situation?’” Dennis said.
Williams lauded Dennis for the work he did on both ends of the court that wouldn’t necessarily show up on the stat sheet, but were crucial to the win.
“It’s otherworldly what he’s doing,” Williams said.
When the shot fell well short, the Aggies remained undefeated in the SEC and had won a pair of games from Florida by a total of 5 points.
“They made it tough on us, we made it tough on them,” Marble said.
Notes
Forward Henry Coleman fouled out (on several weak calls) in just 13 minutes of play, scoring 2 points.
Forward Hayden Hefner's two 3-pointers and 6 points were all of A&M's bench points.
After shooting 8% in the first half, Florida shot 40% in the second half. They shot 26% for the game.
A&M only turned the ball over 11 times. Florida turned it over even less, only 9 times.
The Aggies, who shoot more free throws than any team in college basketball, did not shoot a free throw until 7:25 remained in the game, when Radford got to the line.
A&M hit all 7 of their free throws; Florida was 14-18 from the line.
In spite of Castleton's impressive statline, A&M outscored Florida in the paint 30-18 and out-rebounded the Gators 45-41.
The Aggies shot 35.5% from the field.
