Tyrece Radford Shines in Aggies' Win Over No. 6 Volunteers
The Aggies won their third straight game on Saturday and their fifth in their last six with a dominating 85-69 victory over No. 6 Tennessee.
Tyrece Radford scored 27 and Wade Taylor pumped in 25 as the Aggies led wire-to-wire at Reed Arena for their second win of the season over a top 10 opponent.
© Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports
“We always talk about throwing the first punch, and we were able to do that in both halves tonight,” Taylor said.
A&M rode a strong first half to a 42-28 lead at the break and led by 20 or more for most of the last frame.
“We got ourselves in a hole. ... We just never seemed like we were in sync and playing the way we wanted to play,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said.
Dalton Knecht came off the bench for Tennessee to make. 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to narrow the lead to 12 with just four minutes to go, but a Taylor layup and ally-oop dunk by Solomon Washington pushed the A&M lead to 16.
Knecht scored 22 for his ninth straight game with at least 16 points.
“They were willful drivers and they did a good job of finishing at the rim,” Barnes said. “We didn’t execute the way we needed to.”
Aggies coach Buzz Williams was pleased with the performance of Andersson Garcia, who hails from the Dominican Republic
“He’s the D.R. Dennis Rodman,” Williams said. “I’ve said it before. That’s what I wrote for him today and my pregame note.”
The Aggies are playing their most consistent basketball of the season over the last six games, but they'll have to keep improving as we roll into March.
Up next for the Aggies are the Vanderbilt Commodores on Tuesday night.