COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Hayden Hefner was taking shots before the 99-minute pregame countdown clock started.
The Texas A&M Aggies graduate who in the rotation of Buzz Williams enjoyed more minutes over the month of December and into early January needs to get his shot back because he shot only 25 percent from 3 in his two conference wins.
Shooting on an otherwise empty court at Reed Arena, this was the point of emphasis especially because Wade Taylor IV would miss game No. 2 straight.
“He carries a lot for our team,” Williams said of Taylor before spinning off into how Texas A&M would manage without him, what with the visit of the No. 5-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide in town. “We have to figure out if we have a chance in another one-or-two-possession game. If we can get it to that on Saturday.”
The Aggies weren’t able to get it done without him after Wednesday’s thrilling comeback against the Oklahoma Sooners. In the first-ever Top 10 men’s matchup at Reed Arena Saturday night, No. 10 Texas A&M came up short to No. 5 Alabama, 94-88.
Zhuric Phelps, who finished with 24, had tallied 13 points by halftime, and Pharrel Payne had 10, but despite a strong second half to pair with it, the Aggies fell short.
Three-pointers were hard to come by, but that’s where Hefner made his presence felt. With under three minutes to play in the first half, he knocked in his second 3 of the night as the Aggies kept working the Crimson Tide’s lead.
By halftime, he’d had notched eight points of his 16-point outing — his best shooting night since the Aggies’ blowout over Houston Christian — and Texas A&M found itself down by eight points.
Unfortunately for them, that was a hump it couldn’t get over.
In the first half, Texas A&M got to the free throw line 26 times, but missed nine of them — a trend that followed them into the second half.
Clifford Omoruyi went down with a lower leg injury within the first three minutes of the latter period, which took away part of Alabama’s momentum, but the lead remained mostly unwavering.
By time the center checked back into the game, the Crimson Tide had erased a mini run sparked by Henry Coleman III and Payne, and a split pair of free throws from Derrion Reid brought the deficit to double digits.
With 10 minutes to play in the second half, Reed Arena showered the court with boos.
A questionable no-call on an apparent travel by Alabama’s Chris Youngblood and a layup by Mark Spears — the pair combined for 41 points to lead the way for Alabama — gave the Crimson Tide a 15-point lead.
At that point, the writing was on the wall.
Texas A&M attempted a comeback bid after bringing the lead down to just three points late in the half, courtesy of Coleman, Hefner and Payne, but in about as clear a showing as possible, it was burned by offensive rebounds.
Three straight second chances with the lead sitting at four points and under two minutes to play gave Sears three looks from 3 in one possession, and on the third attempt, he cashed in to give the momentum back to Alabama.
The Crimson Tide out-rebounded Texas A&M 55-45, a figure it had highlighted prior to the matchup, and finished the night with more assists, more 3-pointers and a better overall shooting percentage in its road win. Meanwhile, the Aggies, despite getting to the line 48 times, only converted 58 percent of their foul shots — a likely item to add to their to-do list.
With the loss, Texas A&M logs its first loss in conference play and falls to 2-1 since beating the Texas Longhorns on Jan 4. It comes up short in the program’s first-ever top-5 matchup, but will now look to get back on track in Lexington, Ky. in another highly ranked meeting with the Kentucky Wildcats.
Tipoff from that contest is set for 6 p.m. CST Tuesday.
