An ugly win is still a win
COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS -- No. 13 Texas A&M's anemic outside shooting continued Friday night, as they hit just 2 of 22 3-point attempts. Unfortunately for Oral Roberts, Henry Coleman III does his work in the post.
Coleman became just the third Aggie in program history to record three consecutive double-doubles with 19 points and 10 rebounds to lead A&M (4-0) to a 74-66 win over the Golden Eagles (1-3) before 10,689 at Reed Arena.
Coleman's three straight double-doubles put him in elite territory, joining only Tyler Davis and Robert Williams as Aggies to accomplish the feat. More importantly, his play was the difference between victory and defeat.
Oral Roberts hit 11 of their 28 3-pointers, including 5 of their first 10. They held a 24-19 lead with 9:15 to go in the first half before a free throw from Jace Carter narrowed the lead to 4. Coleman then went on a personal 8-4 run, hitting a pair of free throws, two dunks and a layup to tie the game.
Boots Radford (11 points) scored on a driving layup to give the Aggies a 30-28 lead with 3:26 to go in the half, and the Aggies would not trail again. A half-ending 6-0 run by the Aggies, highlighted by an easy dunk by Solomon Washington when he was the only player to realized that Hayden Hefner had missed the front end of a one-and-one, not a two-shot foul, put A&M 38-31 at intermission.
But Oral Roberts, which won 30 games last season but has struggled in 2023, would not go away. After Wade Taylor (16 points) hit a jumper to start the second half, the Golden Eagles went on a 7-0 run to cut the Aggie lead to two. Radford responded with a 5-0 run of his own, including A&M's first 3 of the night, to push the lead back to 7.
After an Oral Roberts basket, Aggie guard Manny Obaseki (7 points) scored 5 of A&M's next 7 points to push the lead up to 13. But the sharp shooting of Golden Eagles guard Isaac McBride (game-high 27 points) kept the visitors within shouting distance. A&M saw its lead cut to 6 with 1:10 left in the game, but hit their free throws down the stretch to overcome a 3-point barrage from McBride in the closing minute.
In spite of their ineffective 3-point shooting, the Aggies dominated on the boards, picking up 28 offensive rebounds to Oral Roberts' 6. That led to 22 second-chance points for A&M, compared to just 4 for the visitors. The Aggies made 20 of their 24 free throw attempts, while Oral Roberts only attempted 15 free throws in total.