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 at Madison Square Garden.
From start to finish, it was all Aggie’s 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.
