No. 22 Texas A&M men’s basketball battled to a 72-67 win over Texas Tech at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth on Sunday afternoon. The Aggies and Red Raiders met on the hardwood in the regular season for the first time since 2012 as part of the US LBM Coast-to-Coast Challenge.
Here are a few takeaways from A&M’s gutsy victory, its first at Dickies Arena in four trips under coach Buzz Williams.
After the Aggies jumped to a hot start and grabbed their largest lead of the game at 26-15, the Red Raiders roared back and made things close the rest of the way. Texas Tech launched a 16-8 run to go into halftime trailing by just three and came out of the break with that same momentum.
Senior guard Elijah Hawkins’ three-pointer gave the Red Raiders their first lead at 38-36 before they stretched it to 5 at the 13:59 mark. Senior guard Zhuric Phelps put the Aggies back in front with a shot from long range, and they never trailed the rest of the way.
“To be in an atmosphere like this with the crowd [the way] it was, it was a one-of-a-kind type of experience,” senior guard Jace Carter said. “This is why you play college basketball. For us to be having fifth-year guys, fourth-year guys, the type of people we have, when it gets to crunch time, games like this, we love it. It’s why we’re at Texas A&M, it’s why we’re playing Texas Tech in December and we’re excited we got a win.”
A&M overcame a sellout crowd of 12,642 that leaned heavily in Texas Tech’s favor. Graduate guard Wade Taylor IV led the way with 19 points while Carter had 16 with with a trio of shots from beyond the arc. Phelps added 12 points and junior forward Solomon Washington brought down nine rebounds with a plus-minus of 20 in 31 minutes.
“It’s been a tough start to the season for me,” Carter said. “I’ve had to reflect on other stuff and kind of just dig deeper into my faith, honestly, and not shy away from the work, not shy away from the controversy. I had to be a grown man and receive the truth.”
The Aggies withstood a three-point barrage from the Red Raiders as super senior guard Chance McMillian and sophomore guard Kevin Overton combined for 40 points and nine shots from beyond the arc.
“Coach always preaches [to] just be us, stick to our foundation,” Phelps said. “It wasn’t that different from that last game that we played. Just being true to our defense and being true to us got us the win.”
The Aggies has their best game of the year when it came to limiting turnovers, an area that has hindered their success this season. A&M gave the ball away just nine times, their fewest of the season. It came on the heels of surrendering its most turnovers of the year with 18 in a win over Wake Forest.
Sunday was the Aggies’ first game of the season in which they limited their giveaways to 10 or less. If they can continue to showcase ball security and take care of the rock, it should open up more opportunities on the offensive end. On the other end of the floor, A&M forced 18 Texas Tech turnovers, the Red Raiders’ most of the season. They were held to their fewest points this year.
“I think [associate head] coach Devin [Johnson], who’s our defensive coordinator, continues to do really impressive things,” Williams said. “One of the things that I just mentioned is he studies, as do all of our coaches, but he studies what he thinks the plan should be. And then we install the plan and practice the plan, and then, in the preparation, he begins to teach our guys and show them pictures of what our adjustments to the plan are going to be.”
Sunday showed just how conducive trips to the charity stripe are to A&M’s scoring fortunes. It sank its second-fewest free throws of the season with 13 after attempting just 18 shots. Thanks to intentional fouls down the stretch, the Aggies avoided their season-low that came in their opening loss to UCF, when they sank eight of 14.
A&M entered the day attempting 26.4 free throws per game, good for 14th in the nation. It’s become a cornerstone of the Aggies’ scoring output, albeit dependent on their ability to draw fouls and, better yet, make the free throws. They hit just five of their first 10 attempts before nailing their next eight.
Find more Texas A&M coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.
Air traffic controllers lost communication for about 10 minutes with a small Mexican Navy plane carrying a young medical patient and seven others before it crashed off the Texas coast, killing at least five people, Mexico’s president said Tuesday.
Authorities initially believed the plane had landed safely at its destination in Galveston, near Houston, before learning it had gone down Monday afternoon, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said. The cause of the crash remains under investigation. A search-and-resuce operation in waters near Galveston pulled two survivors from the plane’s wreckage, Mexico’s Navy said, while one remained missing.
Four of the eight people aboard were Navy officers and four were civilians, including a child, Mexico’s Navy said. Two of the passengers were affiliated with a nonprofit that helps transport Mexican children with severe burns to a hospital in Galveston.
“My condolences to the families of the sailors who unfortunately died in this accident and to the people who were traveling on board,” Sheinbaum said in her morning press briefing, without elaborating on a possible cause. “What happened is very tragic.”
U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Luke Baker said at least five aboard had died but did not identify which passengers.
The plane crashed Monday afternoon in a bay near the base of the causeway connecting Galveston Island to the mainland. Emergency responders rushed to the scene near the popular beach destination about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Houston.
Sky Decker, a professional yacht captain who lives about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from the crash site, said he jumped in his boat to see if he could help. He picked up two police officers who guided him through thick fog to a nearly submerged plane. Decker jumped into the water and found a badly injured woman trapped beneath chairs and other debris.
“I couldn’t believe. She had maybe 3 inches of air gap to breathe in,” he said. “And there was jet fuel in there mixed with the water, fumes real bad. She was really fighting for her life.”
He said he also pulled out a man seated in front of her who had already died. Both were wearing civilian clothes.
It’s not immediately clear if weather was a factor. The area has been experiencing foggy conditions over the past few days, according to Cameron Batiste, a National Weather Service meteorologist. He said that at about 2:30 p.m. Monday a fog came in that had about a half-mile visibility.
Mexico’s Navy said the plane was helping with a medical mission in coordination with the Michou and Mau Foundation. In a social media post, the foundation said: “We express our deepest solidarity with the families in light of these events. We share their grief with respect and compassion, honoring their memory and reaffirming our commitment to providing humane, sensitive, and dignified care to children with burns.”
Teams from the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board were at the crash site Monday, the Texas Department of Public Safety said, and a spokesperson for the NTSB said the agency was gathering information about the crash. The Galveston County Sheriff’s Office said officials from its dive team, crime scene unit, drone unit and patrol responded the crash.
A small Mexican Navy plane transporting a 1-year-old medical patient along with seven others crashed Monday near Galveston, killing at least two people, officials said.
Emergency officials rescued four people and were searching for two that were inside the aircraft, Mexico’s Navy said in a statement to The Associated Press. Four of the people aboard were Navy officers and four were civilians, according to the Navy. It was not immediately clear which ones were missing and which had been killed.
Two of the people aboard were members from the Michou and Mau Foundation, which is a nonprofit that provides aid to Mexican children who have suffered severe burns.
The crash took place Monday near the base of a causeway near Galveston, along the Texas coast about 50 miles southeast of Houston.
Mexico’s Navy said in a statement that the plane was helping with a medical mission and had an “accident.” It promised to investigate the cause of the crash.
The Navy is helping local authorities with the search and rescue operation, it said in a post on the social media platform X.
Teams from the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board have arrived at the scene of the crash, the Texas Department of Public Safety said on X.
The Galveston County Sheriff’s Office said officials from its dive team, crime scene unit, drone unit and patrol were responding to the crash.
“The incident remains under investigation, and additional information will be released as it becomes available,” the sheriff’s office said in a post on Facebook, adding that the public should avoid the area so emergency responders can work safely.
Galveston is an island that is a popular beach destination.
It’s not immediately clear if weather was a factor. However, the area has been experiencing foggy conditions over the past few days, according to Cameron Batiste, a National Weather Service meteorologist.
He said that at about 2:30 p.m. Monday a fog came in that had about a half-mile visibility. The foggy conditions are expected to persist through Tuesday morning.
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