COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Texas A&M coach Mark Turgeon wasn’t impressed with Donald Sloan’s offensive performance Saturday.
But the senior made up for it at the free-throw line and on defense.
Sloan scored 18 points, including four late free throws, to help Texas A&M defeat Colorado 67-63 and extend the Buffaloes’ Big 12 road misery.
The win was Texas A&M’s seventh straight over the Buffaloes and extended Colorado’s conference road losing streak to 32 games.
Sloan was 5-of-15 and missed all five of his 3-point attempts on a day when the Aggies were a horrible 2-of-23 on 3-pointers.
“Sloan knows he wasn’t any good,” Turgeon said. “But I’ll say this, he’s becoming a much better defender. They went at him late. He did a good job late.”
The Aggies (14-5, 3-2 Big 12) were up 59-53 before CU scored six quick points, aided by Texas A&M turnovers, to tie it 59-59 with 48 seconds left.
A putback dunk by Bryan Davis put the Aggies back on top with 32 seconds remaining.
Colorado coach Jeff Bzdelik was discouraged his team was unable to stop Davis from getting that shot.
“We work on it every day,” he said. “You’ve got to put a body on him. I think that’s all we talked about for 72 hours.”
Texas A&M made six free throws after that, including four by Sloan, to secure the win. It was the second straight game in which Sloan made late free throws to help Texas A&M get a win.
“It’s good that my teammates trust me and know that I’m going to make them,” Sloan said. “It feels good.”
Cory Higgins and Alec Burks scored 19 points each to lead Colorado (10-9, 1-4), which hasn’t won a conference road game in more than four years — dating to an overtime victory at Oklahoma State on Jan. 21, 2006.
Colorado trailed by nine points before outscoring the Aggies 11-4 over the next five minutes to cut their lead to 53-51 with 4:45 remaining.
The Aggies responded with four straight points to push their lead to six points.
Texas A&M had led by one before going on a 10-2 run to take a 49-40 lead with 9:40 remaining. Sloan scored six points in that span, including an uncontested layup after a steal by Dash Harris.
Texas A&M made up for its bad 3-point shooting by outrebounding Colorado 38-28.
“We need to do a better job off the defensive glass and finishing possessions defensively, and that’s been our Achilles’ heel,” Bzdelik said. “It’s something we need to correct, obviously, if we want to get where we want to get to.”
Burks’ 19 points extended his streak of double-figure scoring in each game this season. He is the only true freshman in the nation to do so this season.
Higgins scored four straight points to put Colorado ahead 32-30 at halftime.
FG FT Reb
COLORADO Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS
Tomlinson 23 0-3 0-0 0-0 6 2 0
Relphorde 20 0-6 0-0 2-5 1 2 0
Burks 32 8-16 3-3 2-3 0 3 19
Higgins 35 6-11 7-8 0-3 0 2 19
Dufault 33 5-9 0-0 1-3 1 1 13
Thorne 28 4-7 0-0 2-4 1 3 10
Harris-Tunks 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Knutson 7 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 2 0
Crawford 20 1-2 0-0 0-3 0 2 2
Totals 200 24-56 10-11 8-28 9 18 63
Percentages: FG .429, FT .909. 3-point goals: 5-14, .357 (Dufault 3-4, Thorne 2-2, Higgins 0-1, Knutson 0-2, Relphorde 0-2, Tomlinson 0-3). Team rebounds: 7. Blocked shots: 0. Turnovers: 10 (Tomlinson 3, Relphorde 3, Higgins 2, Thorne, Harris-Tunks). Steals: 10 (Higgins 4, Relphorde 2, Burks 2, Dufault, Thorne). Technical fouls: None.
FG FT Reb
TEXAS A&M Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS
Davis 30 6-6 0-0 6-9 1 2 12
Harris 35 0-2 1-4 0-7 7 3 1
Sloan 37 5-15 8-9 0-3 3 2 18
Middleton 20 3-7 0-1 1-5 1 3 7
Walkup 24 6-13 4-6 2-8 0 1 16
Lewis 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Loubeau 19 3-4 0-0 1-2 0 2 6
Holmes 31 2-8 2-2 0-0 1 1 7
Hibbert 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 200 25-55 15-22 14-38 13 15 67
Percentages: FG .455, FT .682. 3-point goals: 2-23, .087 (Middleton 1-4, Holmes 1-7, Harris 0-2, Sloan 0-5, Walkup 0-5). Team rebounds: 4. Blocked shots: 4 (Davis 3, Loubeau). Turnovers: 12 (Sloan 4, Davis 3, Harris 3, Walkup, Holmes). Steals: 6 (Holmes 3, Harris 2, Davis). Technical fouls: None.
Colorado 32 31 — 63
Texas A&M 30 37 — 67
A — 10,316. Officials —Michael Eggers, Bill Kennedy, Don Daily.
