Wade Taylor IV and Manny Obaseki each had 15 points to lead Texas A&M to a 78-64 victory over Ohio State in an early-season battle of ranked teams Friday night at College Station, Texas.
The 23rd-ranked Aggies (3-1) won their third consecutive game since a season-opening loss at UCF. The 21st-ranked Buckeyes (2-1) took their first defeat of the season in their second matchup with a Southeastern Conference opponent. Ohio State beat Texas in its season opener on Nov. 4.
Bruce Thornton scored 15 points to lead the Buckeyes, but Ohio State buried itself early after abysmal shooting in the first half.
Dealing with an aggressive Texas A&M defense, Ohio State shot an awful 7 for 32 (21.9 percent) in the first half and missed 12 of their first 17 shots. The Buckeyes did make 5 of 17 three-pointers to keep the Aggies from running away with the game by intermission.
Texas A&M shot only 6 for 25 (24 percent) in the first half. But the Aggies’ aggressiveness on offense made a huge difference as they continually earned trips to the free-throw line, and made them count.
For the game, Texas A&M made 32 of 40 shots from the line, which doubled the amount of makes for Ohio State, which made 16 of 22.
The Buckeyes led only once in the game, when Thornton opened the scoring with a 3-pointer. The Aggies scored the next 12 points and never looked back.
Zhuric Phelps finished with 14 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals for Texas A&M. Henry Coleman III had 12 points and six rebounds, and Solomon Washington had eight rebounds.
Taylor fouled out with 2:03 remaining in the game, but the Aggies were comfortably ahead 74-58 at the time.
John Mobley Jr. totaled 13 points and Micah Parrish had 10 for Ohio State. Devin Royal chipped in nine rebounds.
–Field Level Media
