New-look Aggies hammer ULM in season opener

The Aggies (1-0) introduced a number of new players to their rotation, both true freshmen and veterans who transferred in from other programs. When asked how long it took for the new group to mesh, forward Hayden Hefner (12 points) snapped his fingers.

“It was immediate,” he said.

It didn’t take much longer than that for the Aggies to take a big lead over the Warhawks (0-1) as A&M opened up the game on a 13-4 run in the first five minutes of the game. Taylor missed his first two shots from the field during the opening moments, but didn’t miss again the rest of the night. He would end up hitting 5 of 7 shots, including 4 3-pointers, as A&M hit 12 of 26 3-point attempts (46.2%).

Hefner was the man with the hot hand early, hitting his first two 3-pointers of the year. But after the Warhawks cut the A&M lead to 18-12, one of the newcomers made his presence felt. Forward Julius Marble, a transfer from Michigan State, scored 4 of A&M’s next 7 points with a dunk and a hook shot in the lane.

“He’s from Dallas, so I recruited him personally,” Taylor said of Marble. “I told him where he was going, not to look at anybody else.”

Another 3 from Taylor and one from another newcomer, guard Dexter Dennis, pushed the lead back up to 15.

The Aggie defense clamped down on what coach Buzz Williams called a “tricky offense”, holding ULM to 27.1% shooting for the game and 10% (2-20) from 3. In the meantime, A&M was on its way to hitting more threes in a game than they did all of last year.

“Don’t mention that,” Williams said. “It’s bad juju.”

There wasn’t much bad for the Aggies in the first half, save for 13 fouls and 9 turnovers. Williams wasn’t as upset about the turnovers, which he largely racked up to first-game jitters, but was less forgiving when it came to the fouls. The Aggies fouled two shooters on 3-point attempts, which he called “sinful.”

"They scored almost as many points from the free throw line than anywhere else,” Williams said.

The Aggies continued to foul after halftime, picking up 12 more, but their turnovers dropped to 5. As the pace and the rotations of the Aggies began to wear the Warhawks down, Coleman began to control the post, scoring 7 second half points from mostly close range. He also added 7 rebounds and 4 assists, both team highs.

The Manny Obaseki show also arrived after halftime, as the explosive sophomore scored 10 points in just 14 minutes, including a pair of highlight-reel dunks.

When it was all said and done, the Aggies had scored 34 points in the paint, 25 off of turnovers and hit 50.8% of their shots from the field. The also out-rebounded ULM 47-36.

While there was occasional sloppiness, A&M did not look like a team that was breaking in a bunch of new players. The new arrivals appeared to fit in seamlessly.

“I’m really pleased for the cohesiveness that they’re playing with,” Williams said.