Manny Watkins was player of the game
The senior guard was there seemingly every time Arkansas needed a big basket or a hustle play.
After making his first career 3-pointer last Saturday against Missouri, Watkins added three more 3-pointers against the Aggies. Two of those came in the second half after the Razorbacks trailed by as many as 12 points.
Watkins also had two steals and an offensive rebound in the final seven minutes that led to six points.
Watkins' first steal led to an Arlando Cook layup to pull the Razorbacks within 54-50. His second steal led to a Texas A&M foul and two Daryl Macon free throws to give Arkansas a 59-56 lead with 2:26 to play.
That was the score when Macon missed a 3-pointer on the Razorbacks' next possession. But Watkins rebounded the miss and got the ball back to Macon, who made two more free throws to extend the lead to give Arkansas a 61-56 lead with 1:21 to play.
Watkins finished with nine points and six rebounds, but his contribution was much greater than the box score will show.
Manny Watkins is the heart and soul of this Arkansas team.
— Kurt Voigt (@Kurt_Voigt_AP) January 18, 2017
Arkansas still can be a tournament team
No one will mistake a win over Texas A&M (9-8, 1-5 SEC) as a great one for Arkansas, but it was one the Razorbacks needed to keep pace for an NCAA Tournament at-large bid.
Wins like the ones over Tennessee and Texas A&M should impress the NCAA Tournament selection committee and will give a boost to the team's RPI. The Razorbacks trailed those games by 13 and 12 points, respectively, but still came back to win on the road.
Arkansas (14-4, 3-3 SEC) has made up for the two conference home losses with those two conference road wins. Seven of the Razorbacks' final 10 conference games are against teams currently in the bottom six of the league standings, so Arkansas stands a decent chance of being a 20-win team entering the SEC Tournament.
Albeit against weaker competition, the Razorbacks have bounced back well from that loss to Mississippi State last week that dropped the team to 1-3 in conference play.
When the game is on the line, Daryl Macon is at the line
Arkansas' three wins outside the state this year have had one common theme: Macon has been a free-throw machine.
In wins over Texas, Tennessee and Texas A&M, Macon is a combined 35-of-39 at the free-throw line. The Razorbacks' wins in those games were all by four points or less.
Macon made 9 of 12 free throws against the Aggies, all of which came after halftime. Seven of the Razorbacks' final nine points were scored by Macon at the line.
The free throws made-up for some mistakes by Macon, like dribbling the ball out of bounds as the Razorbacks tried to run time off the clock in the final 30 seconds, or a 3-of-10 shooting performance. Even on a rough night he finished with a team-high 16 points.
Daryl Macon walking through the Reed Arena halls and yells, "My gym!"
— Jimmy Carter (@NWAJimmy) January 18, 2017
Arkansas out-rebounded one of the SEC's best rebounding teams
Moses Kingsley struggled to get positioning against Texas A&M's bigs and finished with only four rebounds, but those were the difference as the Razorbacks had a 36-32 rebounding edge.
It was the second consecutive game that Arkansas out-rebounded the opposition. The Razorbacks had a 37-36 edge against Missouri last Saturday.
The team's rebounding was poor in last week's loss to Mississippi State when the Bulldogs - then ranked last in the SEC in the category - out-rebounded Arkansas by 12 and had 15 offensive rebounds. Prior to the Missouri game, the Razorbacks had been out-rebounded in their previous three games by an average of 11.3 per game.
Texas A&M entered the game out-rebounding its opponents by seven and averaging an offensive rebound on two of every five misses, but had only seven offensive rebounds in 50 attempts against Arkansas. The Aggies began the game with a 10-3 rebounding edge, but were out-rebounded 33-22 the rest of the way.
Arkansas had 15 rebounds from its guards, often off long misses as Texas A&M was 6-of-20 from 3-point range. Cook, a junior forward, led the Razorbacks with seven rebounds in 21 minutes.
Tip-Ins
The Aggies led for 31 minutes, 9 seconds....Arkansas has won four of its past five SEC road games dating to last season....Mike Anderson won for the first time in seven games as a head coach at Reed Arena....The Razorbacks won at Texas A&M for the first time since they were Southwest Conference opponents in 1991.