Pretty good timing

Texas A&M rallies for a win against Missouri

COLUMBIA — The Aggies led for fewer than three minutes, but they led when it counted.

Texas A&M came back from as far down as 13 points to escape Mizzou Arena with a 67-64 Southeastern Conference win Saturday against the Missouri

Tigers.

The snow and cold outside may have affected the Aggies at the start of the game, but they got warmed up just before halftime and stayed hot the rest of the way.

After entering the second half up 10, the Tigers maintained at least a seven-point advantage for the first seven minutes, but the Aggies went on a run to close the gap.

Quenton Jackson turned a steal into

a layup and hit the and-one free throw to get within four, but Missouri’s Trevon Brazile pump faked on the left wing, then stepped up past the defender flying by him for a mid-range jumper to extend the lead to 47-41 with 12:01 left.

Amari Davis got Missouri back to an eight-point lead when he found Javon Pickett with a long pass over the defense for a fastbreak layup, then Kobe Brown grabbed one of his gamehigh nine rebounds and did the same to Davis who was streaking down the floor for a layup of his own.

Heading into the second media timeout of the second half, Missouri was back up 10 at 51-41 with 10:20 left.

Out of the break, Marcus Williams crossed up a defender on the left wing, leaving him a wideopen layup, then Tyrece Radford hit a pull-up floater before Williams stole a pass and Hassan Diarra hit a left-wing 3 to quickly close the game to 51-48 with 8:48 left.

“The second half, we had a lot of uncharacteristic turnovers,” Missouri coach Cuonzo Martin said. “We were up 10 and they scored seven points and those were breakdowns on our part.”

Missouri held onto the lead until Williams hit a floater to take A&M’s first advantage of the game at 57-56 with 4:47 left.

The teams went back and forth down the stretch, with four lead changes in the next two minutes, before DaJuan Gordon hit one of two free throws to tie the game at 61 with 2:07 remaining.

The Aggies took the lead again when Radford spun into a drive for two of his 13 points, then held onto it, building as far as 65-61.

“We’ve got to continue to lock in,” Missouri guard Javon Pickett said. “They were all able score whenever they wanted to in about the last seven minutes.”

Missouri attempted to come back in the final seconds, with Jarron Coleman sinking a running 3-pointer from the right wing to bring the Tigers within 65-64 with 4.7 left, but two made free throws from Diarra and a missed half-court heave sealed the win for A&M.

“More than anything, we were missing defensive toughness and focus,” Martin said. “We weren’t focused on some assignments. You need to carry out those assignments start to finish in a game.”

Missouri jumped ahead 12-0 to start the game as it hit its first four shots and held Texas A&M scoreless through nearly the first nine minutes on 0-for-13 shooting. Missouri was unable to take advantage further as it went through an 0-for-9 shooting stretch of its own as the Aggies began to claw back to 18-12.

“You’ve got to capitalize,” Martin said. “But you’ve also got to continue what you’re doing on the defensive end and continue to share the ball on offense. The ball began to stick a little when we got up 12.”

Texas A&M shot just 26.5 percent (9-of-34) in the first half, including sinking 2-of-10 3-pointers, while Missouri made 13-of-29 overall before the break.

The Aggies heated up in the second half, making 15-of-29 attempts for 51.7 percent, raising their overall performance to 38.1 percent.

Texas A&M was able to take advantage of the 12 offensive rebounds it grabbed, turning them into 14 second-half points, while Missouri got only four points on second-chance opportunities.

“What we were doing in the first half, it was like, everything was just working” Pickett said. “You’ve got to continue to play all 40 minutes … you’ve got to finish out the game. We didn’t do that.”

Missouri spread the ball around offensively with three players in double digits. Coleman led the way with 14 points, while Pickett and Gordan each had 11.

Henry Coleman led the game with 18 points for the Aggies, while Radford added 14 and Williams scored 10.

”It’s frustrating, that was definitely a winnable game,” Jarron Coleman said. “We had the game in our hands. I feel like we took our foot off the gas when we had a lead and also we had breakdowns. We weren’t in certain positions we were supposed to be in. We weren’t doing our fundamentals.”

The loss broke a four-game home win streak for the Tigers and is their first loss at Mizzou Arena since Nov. 26 against Wichita State.

Missouri (7-9, 1-3 SEC) will look to bounce back on the road Tuesday when it travels to Oxford, Miss., to face Mississippi at 6 p.m. Texas A&M (15-2, 4-0) faces No. 18 Kentucky at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.