Texas A&M Beats Down Baylor 80-61

Danuel House led the way for Texas A&M, scoring 17 points with 8 rebounds while shooting 4-9 from three. His early defensive intensity held Taurean Prince down to just 2 points in the first half. Prince would finish with 8 points and 3 rebounds.

Lester Medford made a late game push for the Bears in the final 10 minutes of the game, putting his head down and getting to the free throw line where he was 5-6 on the night. He finished with a team leading 16 points, 5 assists, and 5 steals.

Rico Gathers, overwhelmed on the glass early by Billy Kennedy's front line of Tyler Davis and Jalen Jones, brought more energy to the second half. Gathers had only 4 defensive rebounds and 2 offensive rebounds in the first half. He would finish the game with 18 rebounds (7 OReb). The Aggies had 6 offensive rebounds in the 1st half, leading to 8 points. In the 2nd half, the Aggies collected 13 offensive rebounds but had only 4 second chance points off them.

Jake Lindsey and King McClure earned a combined 28 minutes off the bench. Lindsey tallied 6 assists against 0 turnovers, a nice showing for the young guard. McClure did not have as good a game, shooting 0-3 from three in his 11 minutes. His looks were wide open, he just missed his shots. It was encouraging to see Drew continue to put him in for short stints, even though his shot was not falling. Maybe if he were in the game for stretches longer than 2-3 minutes he could find his rhythm.

Johnathan Motley, whose presence was needed against Texas A&M's long, athletic front line, was a disappointing. He scored only 6 points on 3-6 shooting and collected only 5 rebounds. He, Gathers and Prince often failed to box out their man, or they would rotate to contain a driving Alex Caruso or Anthony Collins and their teammates would or could not rotate over in time to body up the player left free under the basket. Caruso's length and size were trouble for Baylor's perimeter defense all night, as he consistently got into the lane and found his teammates open under the basket for 8 assists. Collins would finish with 7 assists.

Ish Wainright was Baylor's best shooter last night. He shot 4-5 from three, while the rest of the team went 3-16 combined. His rebounding presence was sorely missed, however, as he gathered only 2 rebounds on the night, both on the offensive end. Wainright has averaged nearly 5 rebounds a game, and while offensive rebounding from the wing is valuable, his effort was needed more on the defensive end where Texas A&M was killing Baylor with put-back attempts.

Overall, the rebounding evened out (Texas A&M out rebounded Baylor only 45-40), but the Aggies' early effort and shot making was too much for Baylor to counter. Baylor's effort increased in the 2nd half, but the Bears could not hit a shot. The Bears were shooting a paltry 18% from the field in the second half with about 8 minutes remaining.

With two losses of large deficits on the road this season, it's a fair question to ask if Baylor will be able to play well on the road this season. If not, Big 12 conference play will be a bumpy ride for the Bears.

Here are the game's stats:

via ESPN.com