Texas A&M will look to extend its winning streak to five games when it visits reeling Georgia on Tuesday night in Athens, Ga., in the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams.
The Aggies (11-2) are coming off an 85-59 victory over Central Arkansas on Wednesday. Quenton Jackson scored 31 points on 11-for-18 shooting from the field, while Marcus Williams added 16 points and Andre Gordon 12. The Aggies converted 34 points off 23 Central Arkansas turnovers.
“I am more focused on what is coming when we get to conference play,” said Jackson, who averages a team-high 13.7 points per game. “Our main problem is that we need to play with the same energy 100 percent of the time. We have points in the game where we just die down and get comfortable. I think we just need to figure out a way to play all 40 minutes.”
Williams is averaging 10.1 points and a team-high 3.6 assists for the Aggies, while Tyrece Radford averages a team-high 5.8 rebounds to go along with 8.9 points per game.
While Texas A&M has opened the season with 11 wins in 13 games, Georgia (5-8) is coming off home losses to East Tennessee State and Gardner-Webb.
Georgia trailed 22-10 in the first half and by as many as 21 points in the second half against Gardner-Webb on Wednesday. Georgia coach Tom Crean took full responsibility for the defeat.
“This one is on me,” he said during his postgame radio interview. “I’ve got to do a better job. I’ve got to do a better job of giving them better answers, and our toughness and physicality is not where it needs to be right now.
“We’ve got to figure out what kind of adjustments we’re going to make to that and regroup it a little bit because we can’t afford to get off to bad starts. My job is to help these guys get better, help them believe, and find a way to give them better answers during the game.”
Braelen Bridges leads the team in scoring (12.8 points) and rebounding (5.8), while Aaron Cook averages a team-high 6.8 assists and 1.5 steals to go along with 10.6 points per game. Kario Oquendo averages 11.5 points.
Jailyn Ingram, who averaged 10.7 points and 6.0 rebounds, is out for the season after tearing his right anterior cruciate ligament against Jacksonville on Dec. 7.
–Field Level Media