Wade Taylor IV scored a career-high 19 points on 7 of 9 shooting from the floor, and Texas A&M’s rebounding and bench did yeoman’s work in the second half as the Aggies defeated struggling Oregon State 83-73 on Saturday in Corvallis, Oregon.
The Aggies led by seven points at halftime but took charge over the first six and a half minutes of the second half via a 16-8 surge that was capped by a layup by Henry Coleman III with 13:20 left to play. Texas A&M pushed its lead out to 23 points after a pullup jumper by Taylor with 8:01 to play and the Beavers never got closer than 11 points the rest of the way.
Coleman and Quenton Jackson added 16 points each for the Aggies, who forced 20 Oregon State turnovers that led to 19 points and earned a 34-26 edge in points in the paint. Andre Gordon had 11 points for Texas A&M (8-2), which has won four of its past five games.
Jarod Lucas led all scorers with 25 points for the Beavers (1-10), who have dropped 10 straight games. Ahmad Rand added 11 points for Oregon State.
The first half was evenly matched if a little uneven for both teams. The game was tied at 10 after a jumper by Oregon State’s Warith Alatishe at the 13:13 mark before the Aggies reeled off an 8-3 run. The Beavers ran back in front at 25-24 on Roman Silva’s layup with 4:24 left in the half but Texas A&M finished the half with a 12-4 spurt and went to intermission up 36-29.
Taylor led Texas A&M with nine points in the half but 11 Aggies saw the court and eight of them scored in the first 20 minutes. Texas A&M owned a 20-15 edge on the boards and forced 11 Oregon State turnovers in the half.
Lucas paced the Beavers, also with nine points, as Oregon State outshot the Aggies 46.4 percent to 42.4 percent before halftime. The Beavers did not attempt a free throw in the first half.
–Field Level Media
