Aggies Tame Kentucky Wildcats 97-87, Advance to SEC Tournament Semifinals on Saturday
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The Texas A&M Aggies men's basketball team downed No. 9 Kentucky in the SEC men's basketball tournament 97-87 on Friday night at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee to advance to Saturday's quarterfinals round.
It was the second win for the Aggies over Kentucky this season after a 97-92 win over the then-No. 6 Wildcats back on Jan. 13.
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The Aggies' offense was clicking early and often as guard Wade Taylor IV scored a team-high 32 points after scoring 31 the win in January, and fellow scorer Tyrece Radford poured in 23 in the winning effort. Taylor tied the program scoring record for an SEC Tournament game performance.
Manny Obaseki scored 17 and Solomon Washington chipped in 11 as the only other two Aggies who hit double figures in scoring. Andersson Garcia, Washington and Radford all pulled in seven total rebounds.
Rob Dillingham led all Wildcats with 27 while Reed Sheppard scored 14 and Antonio Reeves hit 13 on the score sheet. Tre Mitchell grabbed a game-high nine rebounds on the night while chipping in seven points for Kentucky.
A&M converted on 22 of 30 foul shots while Kentucky made 16 of 22 free throws.
After leading 48-42 at the break, A&M continued its hot shooting and ended the game making 46.4 percent of field goals while Kentucky finished with a red-hot 50 percent.
The Aggies marked their largest lead of the game at 16 with an 80-64 lead with 6:22 remaining in the game, but Kentucky's quick-scoring offense took over and reduced the lead to eight at 90-82 with 1:18 left.
Garcia hit two clutch free throws to extend the lead back to 10 and then the Aggies' perimeter defense took over knowing the Wildcats would be looking for 3-pointers to eat away at their deficit. Obaseki nailed three foul shots with less than a minute remaining to put the game away.
With the win, the Aggies have likely punched their ticket to the NCAA Tournament that kicks off later this month. A&M was teetering on the "first team out - last team in" status, but its chances increased drastically with the big upset win on Friday night.
Next up for the Aggies is the SEC Tournament semifinal game on Saturday against the winner of the Alabama-Florida game that tipped off after the Texas A&M-Kentucky matchup. The Aggies' semifinal game will tip off approximately 25 minutes after the early game that tips off at noon CT.