No. 22 Texas A&M outpaces No. 1 Auburn
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — Auburn coach Bruce Pearl knew exactly why his top-ranked team fell to No. 22 Texas A&M on Tuesday night.
“They just physically dominated us,” he said.
The Aggies never trailed in the 83-72 victory which snapped a season-long four-game skid.
It was Texas A&M’s first-ever win over a team ranked No. 1 in the AP Top 25 poll and ends a six-game winning streak for the Tigers, who clinched the Southeastern Conference title with a win over Kentucky on Saturday.
Auburn has held the top spot in the poll for eight straight weeks and was a unanimous No. 1 pick for a second consecutive week.
Pearl denied that Auburn looked past the Aggies after wrapping up the conference championship this weekend. He said their struggles were simply a matter of A&M playing better Tuesday night.
“They physically manhandled us,” he said. “And if this team is going to continue to win, we’re going to run up against teams like Texas A&M or like Florida or like Duke that are big and physical.”
The Aggies entered the game leading the nation in offensive rebounding and Pearl pointed to their 24-9 advantage in this game as evidence of their physicality.
“We have no excuses to allow those guys to get 24 offensive rebounds,” he said. “I give Texas A&M all the credit. Our guys were physically dominated… so no, I don’t excuse our guys at all. We’re better than that, but not tonight.”
Hearing Pearl’s comments about the Aggies meant a lot to Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams, who said physicality and communication are the two most important things he tries to teach.
“We have to play incredibly physical, and I think we have to do a lot of the things that are not necessarily in the stat sheet for for us to win,” Williams said.
The Tigers were also hurt by an off night from top scorer Johni Broome, who entered the game averaging 18.4 points but managed just eight. He left the game for a couple of minutes early in the first half with what appeared to be a shoulder injury but played 32 minutes despite the problem.
“It may have affected him,” Pearl said. “He obviously had a shoulder injury in December. He had it banged a few times and it he obviously had it banged (Tuesday) and it was bothering him. He tried to play through it.”
Along with Broome’s struggles Tuesday, the Tigers were also without one of their top defenders in Denver Jones, who sat out with an ankle injury.
“Denver’s the best one-on-one cover guy I got,” Pearl said. “So obviously missing Denver was a factor.”
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