Buzz Williams shares what led to Texas A&M's run to get back in South Carolina game

Texas A&M suffered a fifth straight loss on Wednesday night when it fell to South Carolina 70-68 in a hard-fought game that came down to the wire.

The Gamecocks led for most of the evening, even building a lead as big as 13 points about six minutes into the second half. But the Aggies would buckle down and make a serious run at it thanks to their ability to string together several stops in a row.

“I think in the first half we had three turkeys, three stops in a row,” Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams said. “Then that run, I think we went from three to five, I know for sure, and it may have turned into six. I think it was five with two stops with a chance to get a stop for the sixth.”

A quick 10-0 run made it just a three-point game with 10:29 remaining in the contest. Texas A&M wouldn’t get all the way back into it despite taking a brief lead, though.

South Carolina was able to make the plays that mattered down the stretch to walk out with the win.

But Williams explained what his team did that made the comeback attempt possible in the first place.

“Thought we were doing a really good job of keeping the ball on the side,” he said. “Thought we were doing a really good job of having a low-man presence to protect from them throwing it inside.

“A lof of that stuff, though, was happening in the first half. They were getting the ball to the middle off the bounce and it was breaking down our defense. That led to those open slash late contested threes. And we also fouled them too much.”

Even then Texas A&M had a considerable advantage in free-throw attempts, something the team has been good at all year long. But the defense was the letdown, outside of the stretch where Texas A&M tried to get back into the game in the second half.

“I thought we did a lot better job in that stretch that you’re talking about of having a low man,” Williams said. “The last ATO (after timeout) we did not do a good job in that regard. If they didn’t score at the rim, we were not physical on the weakside crackback to get the offensive rebound or defensive rebound.”

In a game against one of the league’s best teams, a few mistakes were costly enough to result in the loss.

Texas A&M will return to action looking to break up its five-game losing skid on Saturday with a road game at Georgia. The game will tip off at 6 p.m. ET on the SEC Network.