19 Crimson Tide turnovers resulted in 29 points for the Aggies, resulting in their 11th loss of the season to Alabama.
A good night of shooting from the floor didn't make for a costly turnover for No. 25 Alabama basketball on Wednesday night, as the Crimson Tide fell to the Texas A&M Aggies 87-71 inside the Coleman Coliseum.
19 Crimson Tide turnovers resulted in 29 points for the Aggies, resulting in their 11th loss of the season to Alabama.
Alabama coach Nate Oates said after the game, "Obviously it's a disappointing loss." "Last home game, thought we'd try better and we didn't. [...] They overtook us, overturned us 19 times - mainly in the effort they beat us."
The first half was a back-and-forth affair, with neither the Crimson Tide nor the Aggies able to hold much of an edge in either direction. Both the teams swung the ball nine times in the first 20 minutes, resulting in several chances of scoring. Alabama and Texas A&M also each capitalized with 14 points of turnover.
At 12:15, the Aggies took their biggest lead at 17-12 in the opening half. At the 1:35 mark, the Crimson Tide had their biggest lead of 38-32.
Junior guard Jaden Shackelford was Alabama's lone standout in the first half, scoring 12 points thanks to three scored 3-pointers. The Crimson Tide was also a perfect 5-of-5 from the free-throw line, with Shekford leading with three free throws.
Texas A&M started the second half with eight unanswered points, taking a five-point lead. A jumper by senior guard Keon Ellis, followed by a fastbreak layup, pulled Alabama to within three on the 15:49 mark. Another -1 opportunity by Ellis reduced the Crimson Tide to just two.
While Shackleford carried the workload for the offense in the first half, Ellis was the workhorse for the Crimson Tide in the second half. On the under-12 media timeout, Ellis 11 points, placing Alabama within striking distance of Texas A&M's four-point.
However, time was running out for Crimson Tide. While Alabama's crime began to show improvement, its defense began to show less effort. Crimson Tide was scoring at a solid pace, but it was leaving the same number of points on the opposite end of the court.
"I think like number one, we have to be tougher," Shackelford said after the game. "We knew Texas A&M was a tough team - the top three in the country in turning people - so we knew we had to be tough in that aspect of handling the ball.
"We just have to be quick. It's March now. It's really time for us to figure out what needs to be done in every game."
With just over nine minutes to play, Texas A&M was shooting 54% from the floor and 36% from outside the arc. Alabama was at 49% off the floor and 32% from the 3-point zone.
In the under-eight media timeout, the Aggies had a nine-point lead driven by four points over forward Henry Coleman III. Alabama's 15 turnovers gifted Texas A&M 25 points, while the Crimson Tide failed to score a single point from the Eggies' second-half turnovers.
With 5:25 left in the game, Texas A&M took a 74–61 lead. Whatever energy Alabama had left, it was depleted by back-to-back 3s by Aegis guard Tyrese Radford. A reaction 3-pointer by Shackleford caused a small backlash from the crowd inside Coleman, but it was too little, too late for Alabama.
The Crimson Tide was upset by a final score of 87–71 by the Eggies.
Shackleford finished the game with 16 points, the most for Alabama. Quinerly was just behind him on 14 points, while Ellis finished the game with 13 points. The trio were the only Crimson Tide players to end the night with double-digit scores.
Guard Kwenton Jackson led all Aggies with 28 points, while Radford finished second with 22. Coleman was the last Texas A&M player to hit double-digit points with 18, but added 11 rebounds for the double-double.
With the loss, Alabama fell 19–11 in the season and is 9–8 in SEC play. Texas went 19-11 with A&M wins and is 8-9 in the conference. Crimson Tide will kick off the regular season on Saturday at LSU (11 a.m. CT, CBS).
"If we get the same effort, the end will come sooner," Oates said. “We are as good as we are and it would be really disappointing for some of these people to end their careers in Alabama with this type of loss.”