Huskers Fall to Aggies

College Station, Texas -- Texas A&M held the Huskers to 31.4 percent shooting from the floor and kept NU's inside attack in check, as the Aggies knocked off Nebraska, 66-55, Saturday afternoon at Reed Arena. 

With the loss, the Huskers fell to 7-7 in league play and 17-10 on the year, while A&M remained tied with Colorado for fourth place in the league standings with an 8-6 Big 12 mark. The Aggies improved to 18-7 overall with its fifth straight win. The Huskers still remain in the upper half of the conference standings in sixth place with two games remaning after Saturday's outcome.

Freshman Jamel White led the Huskers with 16 points, but hit just 4-of-13 from the floor while Jason Dourisseau just missed a double-double with 14 points and nine rebounds. Nebraska hit 42.9 percent from the field in the second frame, but A&M got an early double-figure lead as it held the Huskers to just 4-of-23 shooting in the opening 20 minutes.

Nebraska missed its first nine shots from the floor and posted just one point in the first 7:58 of the game as A&M jumped out to an 11-1 lead on a Chris Walker jumper with 12:29 left in the first period. Walker scored three straight baskets, the last of which pushed the Aggies lead to 16-5 lead.

The Huskers, who played 16 minutes of the first half without center Aleks Maric, who had three fouls, scored their first basket of the game with a White floater in the lane that rolled in at 10:00 on the clock. Nebraska then hit just one of its next six shots and finished the half hitting just 17.4 percent from the field.

Despite the poor shooting, Nebraska stayed close in the contest by hitting 11-of-15 attempts from the charity stripe, including seven over the final five minutes to cut the lead to 27-21 at the intermission. A&M hit 41.7 percent from the field in the opening period, but got to the foul line just five times while getting outrebounded by the Huskers 21-16.

The Huskers opened the second period hitting four of their first six attempts from the floor and used a Maric dunk off a nice entry pass to cut the lead to three, 33-30, at the 14:25 mark.

Joseph Jones, A&M's sophomore big man, answered with a dunk of his own at the other end to start a 10-1 run that included a jumper and 3-pointer from Acie Law and a trey from Dominique Kirk that put the Aggies ahead 43-31 with just just over 10 minutes remaining.

Following Marcus Walker's driving layup, Jones added another basket to give A&M a 45-33 lead before picking up his fourth foul with 8:48 to play with the Aggies up 45-35. Nebraska could not capitalize with Jones on the bench, as NU held just a 4-2 advantage with him out of the game.

Antanas Kavaliauskas put the Aggies over the top as he scored on a layup off an offensive rebound and then hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key to put A&M ahead 50-39 with 6:20 to play. A&M then took its biggest lead of the game at 55-41 after Law was fouled on consecutive layups, converting the second for a traditional three-point play.

Dourisseau cut the lead to 55-44 on a three-point play of his own with just under five minutes remaining, and A&M went ahead 57-44 before an 8-2 run, fueled by a 3-pointer by Dourisseau and three free throws from Charles Richardson, helped get the Huskers back into single digits, 59-52.

That was as close as Nebraska could get as A&M got a basket and three free throws from Law and a pair of charity shots from Walker to ice the game.

Nebraska returns to Lincoln for its final home game of the regular season on Wednesday, March 1, when the Huskers play host to Kansas State at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. The Huskers and Wildcats will tip off at 7:05 p.m. in a game that will be seen in Nebraska on FSN Midwest, and can be heard on the Pinnacle Sports Network.