From the moment referee Antinio Petty threw the ball into the air for tip-off, the Aggies from Texas A&M maintained control. The extremely big and physical Aggies would not be denied on their home floor on Saturday afternoon, and downed the Tigers 81-62.
"We’re not going to win if teams continue to shoot those percentages against us," said coach Bruce Pearl. "Defensively, we continue to struggle."
Auburn Freshman Mustapha Heron scored a game-high 20 points, and Ronnie Johnson recorded 12 points on four 3-pointers.
Solid play from a couple of the Auburn guards would not be nearly enough to stop the Aggies, who opened with a 12-2 lead, stretched it to 20-6 and then made six of their first eight shots from behind the arc.
It looked as if Auburn had gained some momentum when Johnson drained a three-pointer at the halftime buzzer, but the Aggies came out of the lockeroom and continued to play their game.
A&M's inside-out game with a starting lineup of a pair of 6-10 centers in Tyler Davis and Tonny Trocha-Morelos and 6-foot-9 future NBA lottery pick Robert Williams allowed the Aggies to outshoot the Tigers 68.9 percent to 34.3 percent.
Texas A&M was 9-of-14 (.643) from 3-point range, and shot an impressive 69 percent overall. Admon Gilder scored 17 points, Williams 13 points and nine rebounds while JC Hampton had 12 points.
Auburn fell to 16-11 overall, 5-9 in the SEC, and will return to action on Tuesday vs. LSU. the contest is set to tip-off at 6 p.m. and the action can be seen on the SEC Network.
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