NCAA Tournament bracket: Michigan moves to Sweet 16 after beating Texas A&M
DENVER — Texas A&M men's basketball led by 10 points with 13 minutes left in the game but was outscored by 22 the rest of the way as the Aggies season comes to an end Saturday at the hands of Michigan, 91-79.
A&M's season ends in the round of 32 for the second season in a row as the Aggies watch a four-point halftime lead disappear into a 12-point loss. A four-minute and 21-second scoring drought for the Aggies allowed the Wolverines to take full control as Michigan made 5-of-6 shots during the stretch and never relinquished the lead.
Aggies forward, Pharrel Payne tallied his 26th point of the night, a new career high, with seven minutes and 58 seconds left in the game. From there, the Aggies big man didn't attempt another shot for the rest of the night.
"At the eight-minute timeout, we had 70 points, leading 70-66. We were doing really well," head coach Buzz Williams told reporters following the loss. "After that, we didn't finish at the rim, got them in the bonus, didn't shoot enough balls, didn't protect the rim, and didn't get another turkey (three stops in a row)."
Guard Wade Taylor IV went scoreless in the first half, finishing with 14 points on 4-of-15 shooting. Taylor had a chance to cut the Aggies deficit to two points, watching a 3-point shot rattle out with four minutes and 31 seconds left.
A&M only score seven more points for the rest of the game following the Taylor miss.
"I think we was getting pretty good shots, shots that we normally call predictable, shots we call shower shots that we usually, make but they just didn't fall," Taylor said. "We just tried to continue to get stops, try to stop the lead. But I don't think none of the shots we shot were bad, I just felt like they didn't fall."
A&M finished 27-for-71 (38%), while continuing the season-long theme of struggling from the free-throw line, shooting 18-for-26 (69%). Perhaps the biggest difference maker was the usual rebound-centric Aggies got dominated by the Wolverines in the paint, getting outrebounded 48-39 while Michigan outscored A&M in the paint 42-34.
As the season ends, so do the college basketball careers of eight A&M seniors, who were expectedly upset in the locker room and at the podium.
"I want y'all to remember us just by understanding and knowing how hard we worked and the things that we've accomplished throughout these past four years; five years will never be done again, especially at A&M, guard Manny Obaseki said emotionally.
"I want you guys to understand that the people that orchestrated and played a part in what has transpired over these last four or five years wasn't by coincidence, and it goes to show you how special Buzz is as a leader...there's not a lot of words that I can really put to describe how much these people mean to me and what this class and what Team 113 has meant to me, as well."
Michigan awaits the winner of Auburn-Creighton to see who they will face in the Sweet 16 in Atlanta next weekend.
Reach Texas A&M beat reporter Tony Catalina via email at ACatalina@gannett.com. Follow the American-Statesman on Facebook and X for more. Your subscription makes work like this possible. Get access to all of our best content with this tremendous offer.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas A&M vs Michigan: Aggies fall short in round of 32
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