Hayden Hefner, No. 12 Texas A&M ease past Houston Christian

Hayden Hefner poured in a season-high 19 points and the Aggies' defense did the rest as No. 12 Texas A&M posted a workmanlike 77-45 win over Houston Christian on Friday afternoon in College Station, Texas.

The Aggies (10-2) easily won their sixth straight game despite playing without leading scorer Wade Taylor IV, who was held out for an undisclosed injury. Texas A&M was up by a dozen points at the break after leading by as many as 16 and opened the second half with a 9-0 run with Hefner making a free throw, a dunk and a 3-pointer in that stretch.

The Aggies slowly increased the margin, eventually leading by as many as 33 points in the final minutes. Manny Obaseki added 13 points for Texas A&M, with Zhuric Phelps and Pharrel Payne hitting for 10 apiece and Solomon Washington grabbing 11 rebounds in the victory.

D'Aundre Samuels led Houston Christian (4-8) with 12 points. The Huskies shot only 30.6 percent and made 2 of 20 from beyond the arc.

Points were at a premium in the early going, with the Aggies finally finding a little bit of rhythm and building a 9-3 lead after a layup by Phelps at the 15:27 mark of the first half.

Texas A&M boosted its advantage to nine points on Jace Carter's 3-pointer with 11:22 to play in the half, and then to 26-15 when Jaelyn Lee hit the boards for a tip-in with 6:50 left until halftime.

The Aggies stretched the margin to 16 points on Hefner's 3-pointer with 2:40 remaining before settling for a 35-23 lead at the break.

Hefner led all scorers with 13 points before halftime while Washington grabbed eight rebounds over the first 20 minutes of play.

Julian Mackey scored all seven of his points in the first half for the Huskies, five of which came at the free-throw line.

Texas A&M made 54.8 percent from the field (17 of 31) in the second half on its way to 47.1 percent shooting (32 of 68) for the game.

--Field Level Media