Buzz Williams Picks up First Win With Texas A&M

The new Aggies basketball coach is now 1-0 in College Station

COLLEGE STATION - It seemed destined for Texas A&M's basketball team to walk away as a winner, but anything is possible. Buzz Williams left Virginia Tech to fix the Aggies' program following a rough 2018-19 campaign. 

So far, he has the team on the right foot. The Aggie picked up their first win under Williams Wednesday night with a 77-63 victory over Northwestern State. 

“In simplest terms I think we just exhaled. We were excited," Williams said Wednesday evening. "We were playing well and excited that we were ahead, so we emotionally let off what we needed to do right. We just need to prevent those types of things in the future. It doesn’t matter what part of the game it happens.”

The Aggies offense started slow, falling behind to Demons 12-10. From there, the A&M would go on a 10 point run with eight minutes to play in the first half. Junior Quenton Jackson would start the drive with a three-pointer from corner. From there, it was Aggies basketball. 

Jackson would finish with 13 points, finishing second behind Savion Flagg. Flagg led the way with 22 points, including going for 9-11 in field goals. The Aggies outscored Northwestern State 44-20 inside the paint, guiding their way to 38-26 advantage at halftime, 

“I was pretty pleased with us," Flagg said. "I think we made some strides in our scheme that we try. Everybody was pretty much locked into what we're trying to do. I'm pretty excited in the way we're going with it.”

With Wednesday's victory, the Aggies picked up their 19th consecutive season-opening win. Williams, a former coach for A&M, can see the promise of the future with the organization. While there's room for improvement, the Aggies can celebrate a victory heading into the weekend. 

The team can look back on several positives before their next outing against Louisiana-Monroe on Monday at Reed Arena. 

“There were stretches of the game tonight where we played very well. One of our best stretches of the night was in the first half, where we just didn’t turn the ball over. In that stretch, we had four assists. We finished defensive possessions with defensive rebounds. We had multiple opportunities to get out in transition and finish in advantage-disadvantage situations. Those were some things I really liked.”