No. 23 Texas A&M gets back on track with easy 71-50 win over The Citadel

Aggies cruise to 71-50 win over The Citadel

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Donald Sloan scored 17 points and No. 23 Texas A&M got an easy 71-50 win over The Citadel on Saturday night.

It was the Aggies’ first game since last Saturday’s 84-81 loss to New Mexico and their first win over The Citadel in the second meeting with the school.

The Aggies used a dominant first half to put the game away — the Bulldogs didn’t get within 10 points after the first few minutes. Texas A&M (9-2) had six 3s by halftime, when they led 33-11, and scored the first seven points of the second half to stretch the lead to 29 points.

Another run a few minutes later, keyed by six points from Sloan, saw Texas A&M outscore the Bulldogs 13-4 and push the lead to 53-20 with about 11 minutes remaining.

The Citadel (6-6) was led by Cameron Wells with 28 points. He was the only Bulldog who shot well and he made 11 of the team’s 18 baskets.

The Bulldogs shot just 33 percent in their first trip to College Station and the first game against the Aggies since a 62-61 win in 1971.

Texas A&M got a career-high four 3-pointers and 12 points from Nathan Walkup, and Khris Middleton added 11 points.

The Aggies got in an early hole last week against the Lobos and were unable to overcome the deficit despite a late surge. This time they nipped an early deficit quickly and took this one over to cruise to the win.

The Citadel led 4-0 before Texas A&M went on a 19-2 run to take a 19-6 lead with about 13 minutes left in the first half. The Aggies made four 3-pointers in that span with Sloan hitting two of them.

Zach Urbanus made a 3-pointer after that before the Bulldogs went on an almost nine minute scoring drought which allowed the Aggies to push the lead to 29-9.

Texas A&M had more 3-pointers (6) in the first half than The Citadel had total baskets (5).