Purdue players might not sleep well tonight, if its 70-66, is any indication, Texas A&M will be in its nightmares.


The Aggies certainly seemed to be everywhere on the court after harassing Purdue for a full forty minutes, forcing Purdue into one of its worst offensive performances of the last few years and giving Purdue its second loss in three games.


Buzz Williams' Aggies came in with a reputation for offensive rebounding, and defense. After leaving Indianapolis, both those reputations will be fully intact after out rebounding Purdue by 11 and forcing Purdue into 16 turnovers.


After a back and forth of chaotic first half, Purdue trailed 38-35 at half. Texas A&M was 50% from three, but Purdue had forced them into 10 turnovers to stay in it.



Aggies came out hot in the second half. Hayden Hefner hit a three pointer, and a Trey Kaufman-Renn turnover led to another easy basket to extend A&M's lead to 43-35.


Purdue's offense flashed back for maybe the only time in the game. Kaufman-Renn found Heide for a dunk and then back to back Myles Colvin lay ups cut the lead to 43-41. Camden Heide would theng ive Purdue a lead, 44-43, to cap off a 9-0 run.


Purdue didn't have much offense from there.


Back to back turnovers by Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer helped fuel A&M's offense, letting the Aggies extend its lead to 59-50. A scoreless streak of over six minutes let the Aggies move its lead into double-figures.


Purdue fought back late, carving into the Aggies lead when Smith finally found Kaufman-Renn inside for a lay up and then blocked two shots on the defensive end and saved a loose ball by sliding for it near half court.


Purdue pulled within a possession, 69-66, but time ran out on a comeback as Texas A&M made just enough from the charity stripe to hold on.

Again, turnovers doomed a Purdue team that had to rely on perimeter shooting with Kaufman-Renn getting mostly shut down by the Aggies aggressive double-teams and switching. Kaufman-Renn had just 11 points and 4 rebounds while turning it over 5 times.


Fletcher Loyer was outstanding in the first half, scoring 12 points on 5 of 5 shooting, but didn't score in the second half.


Braden Smith was uncharacteristically careless with the ball, especially in the first half, he finished with 6 turnovers and had 15 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists.