Sophomore Emanuel Miller scored career-high 23 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to help Texas A&M charge back from a double-digit, second-half deficit and outlast Tarleton State 73-66 on Wednesday in College Station, Texas.
The Aggies trailed throughout the game before taking the lead for good at 56-54 on a pair of free throws by Savion Flagg with 5:50 to play. Tarleton State went 4 1/2 minutes without a field goal in the game's pivotal stretch and was outscored 19-12 over the final six minutes.
Miller, who sat out the Aggies' opener with a "small muscle injury," did the majority of his damage from the charity stripe, hitting 15 of 16 free-throw attempts. Flagg added 21 points and nine rebounds for Texas A&M (2-0).
Montre' Gipson led Tarleton State with 23 points while Konstantin Dotsenko and Shamir Bogues added 15 and 11 points, respectively for the Texans (1-1). Four Tarleton State players fouled out.
Tarleton State, in its first year in Division I and a member of the Western Athletic Conference, is coached by Billy Gillispie, who was at Texas A&M from 2004-07 and then coached at Kentucky and Texas Tech.
The Texans played as if they belonged in the first half, holding Texas A&M to 33.3 percent shooting and leading by as many as six points before the Aggies trimmed that advantage to 26-24 on Flagg's 3-pointer with one second left in the half.
Flagg, the Aggies' top returning scorer from last season, hit for 12 in the first half to keep Texas A&M close.
Dotsenko led Tarleton State with 10 points off the bench over the first 20 minutes. The Texans forced 16 turnovers, shot 45 percent from the floor and owned the lead at intermission despite being outrebounded 19-11 and committing 14 turnovers of their own.
Tarleton State pushed its advantage to 42-32 on a fastbreak 3-pointer by Gipson with 13:20 left in the second half, but the Aggies responded, reeling off a 15-4 run capped by a layup by Jay Jay Chandler to move in front at 47-46.
--Field Level Media
