Zhuric Phelps and reserve Pharrel Payne each scored 16 points as No. 17 Texas A&M knocked off 11th-ranked Purdue 70-66 on Saturday in the first game of the Indy Classic in Indianapolis.
Wade Taylor IV added 15 points, five assists and five steals for the Aggies (9-2) before leaving in the final minute of the game with a leg injury.
Texas A&M, which has won five in a row, forced 16 turnovers that led to 22 points. The Aggies also controlled the glass, earning a 34-23 rebounding advantage, while shooting 44 percent from the field.
Four players scored in double figures for the Boilermakers (8-3), led by Braden Smith with 15 points, six rebounds and six assists. Fletcher Loyer added 12 points, all in the first half, and Trey Kaufman-Renn was held to 11 — seven under his team-high average — before fouling out. C.J. Cox came off the bench to contribute 10 points as Purdue shot 45.3 percent.
The Aggies led the entire second half, boosting the lead to 12 with 4:44 remaining and then holding off a late Purdue surge. Solomon Washington’s only point of the game, a foul shot with 6.9 seconds left after Kaufman-Renn’s fifth foul, sealed the outcome.
The pregame storyline was which star guard — Taylor or Smith — would tilt the game in his team’s direction. Both lived up to billing in the first half as Taylor scored 10 points with three assists while Smith canned four 3-pointers.
However, Smith also committed four turnovers and had just one assist, an unusual ratio for a guy who entered the game averaging 8.8 assists per game. And Payne’s nine points gave Texas A&M a 14-5 advantage in bench scoring.
The Aggies led for most of the half, although Purdue managed a 32-28 edge on Smith’s 3-pointer with 5:37 remaining. However, Texas A&M got two free throws from Phelps and another one from Coleman in the last 1:10 to take a 38-35 edge to intermission.
The Aggies, who entered the game hitting only 41.2 percent of their field goals, made 12 of 22 in the half and were 6 of 12 on 3-pointers.
–Field Level Media
