Texas A&M Aggies Flatten No. 6 Tennessee in Signature SEC Win
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With the Tennessee Volunteers in town on Saturday, the Texas A&M Aggies made their biggest statement of the season against one of the best teams in the country.
Tyrece Radford scored a game-high 27 points and Wade Taylor finished with 25 of his own as Texas A&M (15-8, 6-4 SEC) got off to a scorching start in the first half and never looked back in an 85-69 win over No. 6 Tennessee.
The Aggies led by as many as 22 in the wire-to-wire win. Tennessee star wing Dalton Knecht hit six triples and posted a team-high 22 points but the Vols shot just 23 of 62 from the floor (37.1 percent) and missed 10 free throws (15 of 25).
The loss marked Tennessee's largest margin of defeat this season.
© Christopher Hanewinc, USA TODAY
Aggies forward Andersson Garcia finished with six points and an impressive 17 rebounds, nine of which came on the offensive glass. Incredibly, this wasn't even his season-high, as he had 19 rebounds in a win over Houston Christian on Dec. 22.
"He is the Dominican Republican Dennis Rodman," Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams said of Garcia. "I will never take for granted the opportunity of a lifetime to coach him."
Texas A&M also got solid games from Solomon Washington (11 points and seven rebounds) and Jace Carter (eight points, four rebounds). The Aggies lost the turnover battle, but held Tennessee to its second-lowest scoring total in SEC play this season while out-rebounding the Vols, 43-35.
Tennessee guard Zakai Zeigler tallied 15 points, six rebounds and six assists, but he and Knecht were the only two Vols in double figures.
Considering the strength of the SEC near the top of the conference, the Aggies will have multiple chances to add more resume-defining wins down the stretch of the regular season.
But first, A&M will visit Vanderbilt (6-17) on Tuesday at 6 p.m. CT.