Texas A&M's Khris Middleton did one better than a career night. He topped his entire career totals.
The freshman scored 17 points in helping lead No. 19 Texas A&M to a 84-59 victory over Prairie View A&M.
The victory made it a clean sweep for A&M basketball after the Aggie women defeated Stephen F. Austin 106-56 in the opener Wednesday night at Reed Arena.
The 6-foot-7 Middleton started the night with more personal fouls (11) than points (9) and was shooting only 22.2 percent for the season.
Those numbers changed quickly when Middleton hit a trio of 3-pointers in the first half. He finished 6 of 10 from the field and 4 of 8 from 3-point range to improve his shooting percentage to .344.; his average scoring per game rose from 1.5 to 3.7 points.
"It was big," A&M coach Mark Turgeon said. "He was really struggling, hadn't played with confidence. It's amazing what making a couple of shots will do for your confidence. I heard the seniors say we need to get Khris going, because they know how good he is."
Middleton also led A&M in rebounds with seven, just four below his previous season total.
Prairie View led until the 4:24 mark of the first half when A&M's Donald Sloan got into the paint for a basket to give A&M a 23-21 lead. Sloan, Derrick Roland and David Loubeau were part of A&M's late first-half run. Sloan scored six of his 11 points and Roland four of his 10 during the comeback.
The Panthers opened the game with 3-pointers by Alex Richman and Michael Griffin.
While the Aggies floundered on the offensive end, Griffin added seven points with a 3-pointer, a drive for a basket and a steal for another easy basket. The final bucket in the sequence put Prairie View up 15-6 before the first media timeout.
"We had five [turnovers] at the first media timeout," Turgeon said. "We were just not ready to play, thinking we're just going to walk over this team. It could have been the late start time. That girls game took forever, not to complain, but I didn't think that was ever going to end. We are in there waiting, waiting, waiting. I thought we we're just too loosey-goosey going out there at first."
The men's game, scheduled to start at 8 p.m., didn't tip off until 8:45 p.m.
The Aggies finished with 17 turnovers, the stat that Turgeon said discouraged him the most.
But A&M started running its offense more efficiently in the second 10 minutes of the opening half, thanks in part to clamping down defensively.
"Prairie View was fired up and ready to go early," Turgeon said. "Their quickness gave us some problems, and then we really started guarding. For a about a 25-minute stretch we really guarded well, and that was the difference in the game."
The Aggies spread the wealth with four players getting at least two baskets, led by Middleton who began calling for the ball more after making two 3s. He got it from freshman Naji Hibbert on his final two 3s of the half.
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