By ROBERT CESSNA
Texas A&M starting point guard Dash Harris didn't shoot well from the floor, but he did just about everything else right in a 74-62 victory over the Akron Zips in nonconference men's basketball action Friday before 7,668 at Reed Arena.
The 19th-ranked Aggies (7-1) used a strong second half to end a four-game winning streak by Akron (4-3), which is ranked the nation's 11th-best mid-major by CollegeInsider.com.
Harris had a much better all-around game in the battle of sophomore point guards, especially when it came to defense. Akron's Anthony Hitchens was 1-of-10 shooting with three turnovers, two assists and no steals.
"I just wanted to stay close and keep a hand in his face and bother him. That was my main goal," Harris said. "If a guy gets a shot up with my hand in his face, and he makes it, that's credit to him. I just wanted to bother him before he got the ball and while he had it."
That's exactly what happened.
The 5-foot-9 Hitchens missed a 3-pointer 11 seconds into the game and never found his rhythm. Neither did Harris, who was 1-of-5 shooting, but he found other ways to help A&M score.
Harris had eight assists and four steals, both career-high efforts. His only bucket was a 3-pointer, and he made all four of his free-throw attempts.
Harris had five of his assists in the second half to help the Aggies make 13 of 27 shots. Harris' play along with fellow guards Donald Sloan and Derrick Roland allowed A&M to take control after a misfiring offense allowed Akron to pull within 26-23 at the half.
"I thought in the second half we really were good," A&M head coach Mark Turgeon said. "Offensively, we got it going and we shared the ball. We spread the floor and did a much better job."
Harris helped the Aggies put the pesky Zips away with three unanswered buckets that pushed A&M's lead to 63-50 with 6:13 left.
A&M's David Loubeau scored on a driving layup with an assist by Bryan Davis. Akron's Jimmy Conyers missed a 3-pointer that was supposed to be taken by Darryl Roberts, the team's best long-distance shooter, said head coach Keith Dambrot. Sloan answered with a 3-pointer off a feed from Harris.
Dambrot took a 30-second timeout, but it didn't slow down A&M, which got a fastbreak layup by B.J. Holmes with Harris getting the assist after Sloan came up with a steal.
A&M had the game's first 11 steals, holding a 19-6 edge on points off turnovers.
Sloan led A&M with 17 points, and Roland had 15. Davis scored 11 on the strength of 9 of 12 free throws. The Aggies made 19 free throws in the second half, missing only three. That's well above their season average of .622, which ranks 10th in the Big 12.
That was one of many things that pleased Turgeon, who admitted he was nervous all day about playing the upset-minded Zips.
"That's a really good win," Turgeon said. "You need that to get ready for what's down the road."
It wasn't easy, though it could have been.
A&M built a 15-4 lead in the first 5 minutes, but the first half turned into a defensive struggle with almost as many misses as the NCAA Women's College Cup semifinal that was taking place next door between Notre Dame and North Carolina.
Akron missed 21 of 29 field goal attempts and A&M clanked 18 of 26.
"They were playing good defense," Roland said. "But I think we just missed a lot of shots."
A&M's offense might have missed its point guard the most.
Turgeon subbed out Harris with a 24-13 lead and Akron outscored the Aggies 10-2 in the final 6 minutes of the first half.
"You look when we struggled in this game, Dash was sitting next to me," Turgeon said. "He picked up two fouls, and I played him probably 2 minutes in the last 12 minutes of the first half. That's when we really struggled. I played him a lot in the second half, and our offense flowed better and our defensive pressure was better."
Senior Roland also had a super defensive game and a career-high eight rebounds. He helped A&M's front court pressure Akron 7-foot freshman Zeke Marshall (six points, nine rebounds) and 6-8 sophomore Nikola Cvetinovic (six points, six rebounds).
A&M MEN BASKETBALL
* Friday's game: No. 19 Texas A&M 74, Akron 62
* Records: A&M (7-1), Akron (4-3)
* Next: North Texas at A&M, 7 p.m. Monday
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