NIT Tournament: Aggies Tame the Cougars and Roll into Championship Game
Quenton Jackson scored a team-high 18 points and propelled the Texas A&M Aggies to the NIT championship game Tuesday night with a 72-56 dismantling of Washington State.
They will play for the title Thursday night against Xavier, who beat St. Bonaventure 84-77 earlier on Tuesday.
Henry Coleman III contributed 16 points and Manny Obaseki chipped in 14 for the Aggies (27-12) as the Cougars had no answer for the A&M offensive onslaught.
Tyrell Roberts led all Washington State (22-15) scorers with 14 points. He was the only Cougars player to score in double digits. Efe Abogidi added nine points to go along with 10 rebounds.
The Aggies played a strong inside game and at one point, had more points in the paint (48) than Washington State had points (47). A&M ended the game with an astonishing 58 points from inside.
A&M has been criticized this season for poor shooting from the field and started off cold hitting just three of its first 21 shots. But the Aggies ended up 32-for-66 on Tuesday (48.5 percent) even though it struggled from 3-point range (14.2 percent).
Texas A&M held the Cougars to 34.5% shooting (19-of-55), including 24.1% from behind the arc (7-of-29). Washington State was only 11-of-20 at the foul line, too.
Washington State committed 17 turnovers to only eight for Texas A&M, and the Aggies held a 25-5 advantage in points off those turnovers.
Jackson has now scored in double figures in 20 of the Aggies' last 21 games and in 31 of the Aggies' 39 games in 2021-2022. It marked the 18th game this season where he has led the team in points.
The Aggies will face Xavier on Thursday at 6 p.m. at Madison Square Garden for the NIT Tournament championship game.
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