Buffs Fall Short at Texas A&M
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Colorado erased a ten point deficit to tie the game late in the second half, but Texas A&M pulled out a 67-63 victory over the Buffaloes on Saturday afternoon.
Down 53-43 with 6:38 remaining in the second half, Colorado went on an 8-0 run fueled by five points from Alec Burks to close the Aggies' lead to two at the 4:45 mark. Two free throws by Cory Higgins later tied the game at 59 with 53 seconds left. Texas A&M responded though as Bryan Davis made a put-back dunk after a missed Donald Sloan layup to give the Aggies a 61-59 lead that they would hold onto.
"Once again our demise was on the defensive boards," said CU Head Coach Jeff Bzdelik following the game. "We gave them 16 second-chance points. Until we understand how to block people off and drive them back, this is what it's going to be.
"We had some open looks there early on in the first half, we just couldn't get the ball to go down. That happens. We need to do a better job off the defensive glass and finishing possessions defensively, and that's been our Achilles heel. It's something we need to correct obviously if we want to get where we want to get to."
Texas A&M finished with a 38-28 advantage in rebounding and had 14 on the offensive end.
The Buffaloes fall to 10-9 for the season, 1-4 in the Big 12 while Texas A&M improves to 14-5, 3-2.
Colorado led 32-30 at the break before the Aggies opened the second half on a 23-11 run to take a ten point lead.
Higgins and Burks led the Buffs with 19 points apiece. Austin Dufault added 13, hitting 3-of-4 three pointers. Dwight Thorne II chipped in with ten points off the bench.
Davis was the difference maker for Texas A&M going a perfect 6-of-6 from the field and grabbing six offensive rebounds to finish with 12 points and nine boards. Sloan led the Aggies with 18 points and Nathan Walkup scored a career-high 16.
"In this league a win is a win, and you take it any way you can get it," Texas A&M head coach Mark Turgeon said. "I thought Colorado had the perfect game plan. I kind of figured they'd zone us a little bit, but not for 38 minutes.
"But when you're missing shots you stay in (the zone). The difference in the game was in the second half we were much more aggressive offensively. We've watched Colorado a lot and there's no quit in them. They have a lot of fight."
Texas A&M struggled from beyond the arc, shooting only 8.7 percent (2-of-23). Colorado was 5-of-14 (35.7 percent) in three point shooting.
Colorado returns home to host Nebraska on Wednesday, Jan. 27 at the Coors Events Center. The game tips at 8 p.m. and will be televised on FSN Rocky Mountain.