Penn State falls to Texas A&M in the Legends Classic Final

Story posted November 22, 2017 in CommRadio, Sports by Joe Esquivel-Murphy

BROOKLYN, N.Y. - Robert Williams scored 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds off the bench as the No. 16 Texas A&M Aggies beat Penn State 98-87 on Tuesday night at the Barclays Center. Duane Wilson provided 22 points from his point guard position.

Tony Carr led all scorers with 31 points, while Lamar Stevens helped out with 25 and six rebounds. Josh Reaves defended Aggies’ leading scorer D.J. Hogg to seven points on 2-10 shooting. Carr and Stevens controlled the first half as the duo combined for 30 points with the point guard going for 21 before halftime.

Williams had a numerous dunks to ignite Texas A&M, including a thunderous dunk to put the Aggies up two at halftime. Wilson sparked the second half run for the Aggies as he scored six straight points to put them up 17 early in the second half.

Texas A&M improves its record to 4-0 on the season and plays Pepperdine on Friday. Penn State drops to 5-1 and faces off against Oral Roberts the same day.

Coming into the game, Penn State had been able to control the paint with big man Mike Watkins swatting would be layups from the opposition. The Nittany Lions had not faced a team like the Aggies before as they had four regulars that were taller than 6-foot-10.

The barrage of Williams, Tyler Davis and Tony Trocha-Morelos proved to be too much as the trio were able to muscle their way to 47 points on 19-26 shooting. Satchel Pierce and Julian Moore were unable to stop the postgame of Davis as he took advantage of his superior footwork to get easy baskets.

Davis was nearly unstoppable in the paint as he went 5-8 from the floor, including nailing his first career three-pointer. Carr and Stevens did their best to keep the Nittany Lions close, but they defensively could not get it done.

The Aggies shot 60.4 percent from the floor, as they nailed six three pointers and had numerous layups around the rim. The Penn State big men were left alone as head coach Pat Chambers did not double Davis and Williams on the block.

Chambers talked about the ability of the Aggies’ shooting for the reason he did not double as much.

“They drilled threes yesterday and I believed in Satchel, Mike and Julian,” Chambers said.

Carr used his height advantage over Wilson, T.J. Starks and Admon Gilder, getting to the basket with relative ease as he put Gilder and Wilson in foul trouble. His 21 first half points kept Penn State in the game as the Aggies had no answer for him.

Unfortunately for Penn State, Gilder and Wilson could not be stopped as they combined for 36 points on 11-14 shooting. Their quickness with the ball proved problematic for Shep Garner as he was unable to stay in front of them throughout the night.

His three-point shooting was inconsistent as he went 2-7 from behind the arc with both of his makes coming with less than a minute left in the game. Freshman Jamari Wheeler provided good energy off the bench as he had two steals and forced numerous more turnovers in his 16 minutes of action.

 

Joseph Esquivel-Murphy is a senior majoring in broadcast journalism and Spanish. To contact him, email jje5139@psu.edu