Big Apple bound: Texas A&M cruises to NIT quarterfinal victory over Wake Forest
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Buzz Williams’ Texas A&M Aggies are headed to New York City. Texas A&M won its NIT quarterfinal, defeating Wake Forest 67-52 on Wednesday night at home. The Aggies will play the winner of Wednesday’s BYU-Washington State game next week in Madison Square Garden.
From start to finish, it was all Aggies Wednesday night in Reed Arena. Wake Forest never led, while Texas A&M was up for more than 38 minutes.
Neither team made 40% of its shots from the floor. They particularly struggled in the first half. Texas A&M had a 32-15 lead at the break on 33% shooting. The Deamon Deacons made just 4-of-27 field-goal attempts in the first half (14.8%). Both teams were 1-of-14 from 3-point range in the first 20 minutes.
More shots fell in the second half. Wake Forest finished 18-of-53 for 34% while Texas A&M shot 39% (24-of-61) for the game.
The best Wake Forest could do in the second half was get Texas A&M’s lead down to 9 points at the 11:23 mark. The Aggies comfortably led by double digits most of the second half.
Wake’s Isaiah Mucius was the game’s leading scorer with 15 points. Texas A&M had multiple players in double figures. Quenton Jackson and Wade Taylor IV had 12 points each while Tyrece Radford added 10 points.
Texas A&M bested Wake Forest in multiple box score stats, including turnovers (21-12), rebounds (41-38), bench points (17-12), points in the paint (32-22) and steals (14-6).
The Aggies will next play on March 29 at The Garden.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
