Texas A&M has lost its last two Southeastern Conference games and figures to drop from its spot at No. 11 in the AP Top 25 poll on Monday.
The Aggies (13-4, 2-2) will try to get back on track when they face LSU (12-5, 1-3) on Saturday night in College Station, Texas.
It’s no coincidence that Texas A&M’s back-to-back losses coincide with the absence of All-SEC guard Wade Taylor IV, as well as matchups against two of the best teams in the country — No. 4 Alabama and No. 8 Kentucky.
Taylor, the Aggies’ leading scorer (15.7 points per game) at the time of his undisclosed injury, has missed the last three games and his status for Saturday is unclear.
Texas A&M edged then-No. 17 Oklahoma 80-78 on Jan. 8 in its first game without Taylor before losses to Alabama (94-88) on Jan. 11 and Kentucky (81-69) on Tuesday.
A&M coach Buzz Williams pointed to Kentucky’s fast-paced offense as a bigger factor in the outcome than his team’s offense in Taylor’s absence.
“(Kentucky) puts stress on you in transition and puts stress on you immediately following transition,” Williams said.
Zhuric Phelps has done his part to relieve the pressure on Texas A&M’s offense, averaging 26.3 points in the last three games. He had team highs of 21 points and seven rebounds against Kentucky and has passed Taylor as the team’s leading scorer this season (15.8 ppg).
The Aggies trailed by just three at halftime, but saw the Wildcats quickly take control by scoring the first eight points of the second half.
LSU hopes to build off the confidence it gained in its first SEC victory, 78-74 over visiting Arkansas on Tuesday, which halted a three-game skid.
The Tigers found their offense after a slow start, going on a 14-3 run that spanned the end of the first half and the start of the second half to turn the game in their favor.
LSU posted its highest point total in four SEC games.
“We had much better spacing this game,” said guard Jordan Sears, who scored 17. “It allowed us to read the floor. The floor opened for us. We got into a couple of ball screens. We were able to reject a couple and make kick-out passes. So that stretched the defense out for us and we were able to attack the basket.”
Guard Cam Carter scored 18 of his season-high 27 points in the second half. The Tigers managed to hang on by making 26 of 28 free-throw attempts.
“The free-throw line ended up being huge for us,” LSU coach Matt McMahon said. “We’ve shot it at a high percentage to start league play, we just haven’t gotten there enough. And to get there 28 times at 93 percent is just fantastic for our team.”
Texas A&M and LSU split two meetings last season as the visiting team won both games; the Tigers prevailed 68-53 and the Aggies pulled out a 73-69 victory. They will meet again March 8 in the regular-season finale in Baton Rouge.
–Field Level Media
