Kentucky Muscles Past Texas A&M 76-67, Snapping Aggies' Seven-Game Winning Streak
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Toughness has been something that has often eluded the Kentucky Wildcats this season. That was not the case on Saturday afternoon.
Three Wildcats eclipsed double digits en route to a 76-67 win over Texas A&M, snapping the Aggies seven-game winning-streak.
An Antonio Reeves 3-pointer to push UK (13-6, 4-3 SEC) ahead 56-53 served as the 11th and final lead change of the afternoon. It was the fourth trifecta of the afternoon for the senior shooting guard, who totaled a season-high 23 points on 8-17 shooting, the fourth time he's reached 20 points this season
Buzz Williams' Aggies continued to scratch and shove — somewhat literally — to the finish line. Bodies hit the hardwood on every other possession, resulting in stoppage after stoppage, foul after foul. Jacob Toppin headed to the locker room after a particularly hard foul from A&M's Julius Marble — who had already been assessed for pushing Oscar Tshiebwe earlier in the game.
TAMU (13-6, 5-1) managed to never let the UK lead grow to double-digits, thanks in-part to the free-throw line. The Aggies shot a perfect 16-16 from the charity stripe.
A Cason Wallace layup pushed the Cats' lead to 65-61, giving the freshman guard 11 points in the second half. Reeves added a floater off the glass to extend the lead to six with less than two minutes to play. He'd make nearly the exact same shot his next time down the court, though A&M continued to find an answer.
"Antonio Reeves, those two baskets late. You need somebody to just go get a basket, and he did it," coach John Calipari said postgame.
Leading 69-65, CJ Fredrick made just his third shot of the game to put the Cats up 71-65. A&M guard Tyrece Radford finally couldn't get a shot to fall, forcing the Aggies to play the foul game with 27 seconds left. Some garbage time buckets and free throws equaled a huge nine-point win for Calipari's group.
"My team, i'm proud of them," he said. "Love CJ, he missed every shot in the first half and I said 'you better keep shooting them or I won't play you.'"
Kentucky entered halftime down once again, trailing 31-29 after failing to hit open look after open look. Fredrick made his first 3-point attempt of the game, but proceeded to miss his next six shots, five of which bricked from behind the arc. Wallace had a rare off-half, missing all seven of his attempts in the first 20 minutes, unable to find a point.
Fresh off of a career night — in which he scored 37 points and pulled down 24 rebounds — Oscar Tshiebwe was nullified in the first period due to foul trouble. In just 10 minutes, he too failed to score while hauling in just three boards. Kentucky made just 11 baskets in the half, eight of which came from Reeves and Toppin.
The Aggies were bullish as always, taking advantage of UK scoring droughts and defensive lulls to keep things close. Henry Coleman III and Julius Marble each had eight points as A&M shot 56.5 percent from the floor. It was a 14-2 run — capped off by a solo 6-0 run from Marble — that put the Cats in a 29-23 deficit moving towards the end of the half. Reeves and Toppin would each can a 3-pointer to tie things up until two free throws from Radford gave the Ags a 2-point edge into the locker room.
As Kentucky started to find its groove on the offensive end, Radford got hotter than a plate of sizzling fajitas, racking up 14 of A&M's first 20 points of the second half, capped off by a second 3-pointer that gave the Aggies a 51-47 lead with 11:45 to go. The senior guard was averaging 14.3 points-per-game across TAMU's seven-game winning-streak.
Tshiebwe responded — as he always does — after being held silent in the early goings, latching on for seven second-half points. A volleyball swat from the reigning National Player of the Year managed to fall into the basket capping off a 7-0 run that put the Wildcats ahead 58-53 with just over seven minutes to go in the game.
"It was physical. I'm proud of my teammates. They were willing to fight,' Tshiebwe said. "We just figured out who we were."
The Aggies continued to rely on Radford, who was the only consistent offensive weapon around in maroon down the stretch.
Toppin continued his burst of scoring energy, reaching double-digit points in just his third SEC game of the season, following his 11-point, 11-rebound double-double in the win over Georgia. He was next behind Reeves with 17 points on 7-12 shooting.
Former starting point guard Sahvir Wheeler once again saw a lack of playing time, as he tallied just 8 minutes.
Kentucky escapes its home gym with a pair of wins in the week and will now hit the road for its fourth conference matchup of the season, taking on Vanderbilt in Nashville. The Cats haven't lost inside Memorial Gymnasium since 2016 and have won 13 in a row overall over the Commodores.
Tipoff is set for 9 p.m. EST this Tuesday and will air on the SEC Network.
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