No. 11 Texas A&M rolls past ice-cold LSU

Zhuric Phelps scored 13 points and No. 11 Texas A&M pulled away from cold-shooting LSU for a 68-57 victory on Saturday night in College Station, Texas.

All-Southeastern Conference guard Wade Taylor IV returned from a three-game absence due to an undisclosed injury to score 12 points while Henry Coleman III added 10 for the Aggies (14-4, 3-2 SEC), who had advantages in points off turnovers (19-4) and points in the paint (32-18).

Cam Carter scored 16 points and Jordan Sears added 11 to lead the Tigers (12-6, 1-4), who shot 36.2 percent from the floor and 24.1 percent from deep for the game and got outscored 38-27 in the second half.

The score was tied at 30 at halftime and was knotted up again at 32 and at 41 early in the second half. Pharrel Payne then made a tiebreaking free throw for the Aggies to make it 42-41 before the lead changed hands twice.

LSU made just one field-goal attempt in a span of nearly 10 minutes, and Texas A&M opened up a 52-43 lead on a 3-pointer by Solomon Washington with 8:16 remaining in the game.

Carter made two free throws to end a scoring drought of nearly seven minutes for the Tigers, but a 3-pointer by Jace Carter and two jumpers from Phelps helped expand the Aggies' lead to 14 points at 61-47.

Taylor didn't waste any time getting back into the swing of things, making a jumper 66 seconds into the first half for the game's first points and adding a free throw as the Aggies took a 6-0 lead. Texas A&M increased the margin to 11-2, taking advantage of the fact that LSU didn't make a field-goal attempt until nearly five minutes had elapsed.

The Tigers closed within four points twice before Coleman made a layup to give the Aggies a 20-14 lead. Sears made three free throws and Dji Bailey added a 3-pointer during an 8-0 run that gave LSU its first lead of the affair, 22-20.

--Field Level Media