David Jones scored 29 points and Jahvon Quinerly added 24 as Memphis held off a late Texas A&M rally to topple the No. 21 Aggies 81-75 on Sunday in College Station, Texas.
Caleb Mills added 11 of his 13 points in the second half as the Tigers (7-2) scored a solid win against a ranked team that could have March implications. Memphis sank 52 percent of its field-goal attempts in the second half and connected on 9 of 22 3-pointers for the day.
Reserve Manny Obaseki scored 21 points to lead Texas A&M (7-3) but he was its only player in double figures. The Aggies hit on just 39.1 percent of their shots from the field, going 6-of-33 from the 3-point line.
The Tigers led by nine at halftime and owned a 14-point lead with 2:38 remaining before Texas A&M made a frantic push. It used a 12-2 run, capped by Obaseki’s 3-pointer with 7.7 seconds left, to pull within 79-75, but Jones sank a pair of foul shots to seal the verdict.
Wade Taylor IV, the Aggies’ leading scorer coming into the game, made just 3 of 14 attempts from the field and finished with nine points and eight assists.
Most of the first half was a game of Jones against Texas A&M. While the Aggies used multiple players to handle their attack, Memphis simply leaned on Jones and let him pour in the points.
Jones — who was questionable to play after suffering an ankle injury in Wednesday night’s 85-80 overtime win at VCU — scored 18 of his team’s first 22 points. When he drained a 3-pointer at the 5:40 mark, he had 21 points and the Tigers owned a 29-22 lead.
Texas A&M rallied to tie the game at 29 on a layup by Henry Coleman III with 2:41 left but Memphis finished the half on a 9-0 run mostly spearheaded by Quinerly. He had an assist, a layup and a 3-pointer to help the Tigers take a 38-29 edge to the break.
–Field Level Media
