It will be a showdown between former Big 12 Conference opponents when TCU squares off against Texas A&M on Saturday afternoon in The Battleground 2K21 at the Toyota Center in Houston.
Both teams are riding impressive records and hot starts to the season. TCU has won four in a row, Texas A&M three.
The Horned Frogs’ most recent outing produced a 76-62 win over Utah in a neutral site dustup in Fort Worth. Mike Miles poured in a career-high-tying 28 points and took a team-best eight rebounds for TCU (7-1).
“Mike was tremendous early and then kept attacking as the game went on,” TCU coach Jamie Dixon said. “We played good defense. We reached every goal we wanted to get coming into the game as far as guarding and taking care of the basketball — we just need to shoot it a little better.”
JaKobe Coles and Emanuel Miller added 10 points each to help the Horned Frogs win their fourth straight game.
The Utes never got closer to the lead than seven points after the 17:13 mark of the second half. The Horned Frogs held Utah to its lowest total of the season. It was TCU’s second consecutive game holding an opponent to a season low in points.
The Aggies are also 7-1 and head to Houston after an 85-65 home victory over New Orleans on Nov. 30 and 10 days off. Andre Gordon scored 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the floor for Texas A&M in the win, with Tyrece Radford adding 13 points, Hassan Diarra and Wade Taylor IV scoring 11 apiece and Marcus Williams hitting for 10 points for the Aggies, who have won three straight.
Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams said his team is in the process of getting better with each game.
“I thought we shared the ball really well,” he said. “Defensively, we just can’t allow the ball to get to the middle of the floor, both halves, they got to the bonus first and that’s not a good sign for us. We always want to be the first team to the bonus. Encouraged by what we’ve learned over the first 20 days of our team.”
Texas A&M was 11 of 23 from beyond the arc, outrebounded New Orleans 41-33 and won despite getting just five points in 16 minutes from season-leading scorer Quenton Jackson and playing without Henry Coleman III, their second-leading scorer and top rebounder.
–Field Level Media