It was gritty and grimy and bodies were flying.

Wake Forest just didn’t have nearly enough offensive punch to steal an upset at Texas A&M, losing 57-44 on Tuesday night at Reed Arena in the ACC-SEC Challenge.

Texas A&M (7-2) only led by double-digits for the last 4½ minutes, able to pull away in large part because Wake Forest (7-3) scored once in the last seven minutes of the game.

Hunter Sallis made a jumper in the lane with 7:05 left to cut Wake’s deficit to 45-42. The Deacons’ only other points came on a dunk by Tre’Von Spillers, which only stemmed the bleeding from the Aggies’ 8-0 run that effectively iced the game.

Wake Forest only led once in the second half, when Sallis made a 3-pointer at the 14:15 mark to put the Deacons ahead 36-34. That was Wake’s last 3-point make of the game; the final damage was 6-for-28, missing the last eight 3s. Sallis (3-for-13) and Davin Cosby Jr. (3-for-11) combined for all of the makes and most of the misses from long range.

It wasn’t just the 3-pointers that weren’t falling for Wake Forest; the Deacons shot 17-for-60 (28.3%). Wake’s effective field goal percentage — which just attaches more weight to 3-point makes — was 33.3% against Texas A&M, which is the worst the Deacons have had since a 60-39 loss to Clemson in 2021 (eFG was 30.9% in that game).

Sallis led Wake Forest with 19 points but was 7-for-22 from the field. He did not have an assist and was charged with five turnovers; in the last three games, he’s had one assist and 10 turnovers.

Cosby had 11 points on 4-for-13 shooting. Cameron Hildreth had six of Wake’s 10 assists, but scored four points on 2-for-12 shooting and committed four turnovers. Efton Reid III had 11 rebounds but fouled out — all of those coming in the second half — and had one field goal (a dunk, his only attempt). Rounding out Wake’s starters, Spillers had six points on 3-for-9 shooting and seven rebounds.

Texas A&M had a three-point lead at halftime and there were a couple of ways to look at that from the Deacons’ angle.

The Aggies committed 14 turnovers in the first half and while some of them were unforced, the Deacons had eight steals. That’s mostly how Wake Forest racked up 15 points off of those turnovers, getting a few runouts off atomic-bomb giveaways.

But — you’ve heard this before — Wake Forest still couldn’t make 3-pointers nearly as often as you’d like. The Deacons were 4-for-15 (26.7%) in the first half. The four makes at least matches how many Wake Forest had in its last two games; though, going 4-for-35 in the ESPN Events Invitational didn’t exactly set a high bar.

TIP-INS: Texas A&M was led by Wade Taylor IV’s 15 points, coming on 4-for-11 shooting. Each of his made shots were 3s. … The Aggies outrebounded Wake Forest 43-33, and had 11 of their 13 offensive rebounds in the second half. … Wake Forest actually had more offensive rebounds (15), and scored 20 points off of those. … Wake Forest freshman Juke Harris didn’t play for the first time this season.