Bucky McMillan and Texas A&M Basketball come up short in high scoring affair on the road against the Arkansas Razorbacks, 99-84. With the loss, the Aggies fall to 19-9 overall on the season, 9-6 in the SEC, and remain at 42nd in the NET rankings. The Razorbacks improve to 21-7 overall, 11-4 in the SEC, and 18th in the NET rankings.
This was a tough one for the Aggies. The problem wasn't entirely on the offensive side, but the defense, rebounding, and turnovers were absolutely horrific. The Aggies needed to hold their own in the rebounding and turnover battles, and they failed both of them miserably. The Aggies had way too many early turnovers, and their lack of size led to a minus 7 turnover differential and a minus 8 rebounding differential.
Texas A&M falls to Arkansas in Fayetteville, but all is not lost
The defense wasn't any better. Six Razorbacks scored last night. All 6 had more than 9 points. Five of them had over 13. Despite only shooting 24% from beyond the arc, Arkansas was still able to shoot 51% from the field, and they got to the free throw line quite a bit as well making 29-33 of them.
The offense for the Aggies was the only semi-bright spot. Mostly because of a dominant performance from Zach Clemence. In only 26 minutes Clemence put up 29 points on 11-14 shooting. He was outstanding.
Rashaun Agee also had a solid game putting up 17 points himself and bringing in 7 rebounds. Outside of that, there wasn't much going on with the rest of the offense. Marcus Hill put up 10 points and Ali Dibba put up 9 points as well but there just wasn't enough support from the rest of the team to keep up with the Razorbacks offense.
The Aggies will look to shift their focus now to the second leg of the Lone Star Showdown as they host the Texas Longhorns on Saturday in a likely must win game. Check back tomorrow for my full preview of Saturday's rivalry matchup.