Texas A&M Handed Fourth Straight Loss To Vanderbilt In Music City

Texas A&M and Vanderbilt were tied in third place in a five-way tie, so both programs knew what was on the line at 7-4.

The Aggies’ defense struggled again to keep forward Tyler Nickel from heating up as he registered 25 points with three rebounds and one assist to lead the Commodores to an 82-69 win at home.

On offense, A&M found some good looks, but they were missing the big elements like making enough 3s and free throws, where they finished with eight 3-pointers and five free throws converted off 10 attempts. Despite Vanderbilt’s handful of runs that hurt A&M’s defense, guard Marcus Hill was in attack mode with plenty of steam in him with 20 points, but it wasn’t enough to escape with a ranked win.

Aggies vs Commodores Recap

Final: Texas A&M 69, No. 19 Vanderbilt 82 pic.twitter.com/SBr4vuhwX8
— Texas A&M Basketball (@aggiembk) February 14, 2026

Offenses kept punching back and forth.

Texas A&M and Vanderbilt shot well from the field to open up the first half. Leading the first half for head coach Mark Byington’s program were Tyler Nickel and Devin McGlockton, who each had 11 points to take the four-point lead to halftime. As for head coach Bucky McMillan's group, it was guard Marcus Hill who had 12 points, going 5 of 7 from the field.

The Aggies jumped out to a 5-0 lead after forward Rashaun Agee scored his only two points that were in the paint that half, followed by Hill sinking his first three of the afternoon. The Commodores answered back, where Nickel connected on his first three.

After Nickel’s basket, Vanderbilt went on an 8-0 run that was powered by forward AK Okereke, who made two free throws and capped off the time frame by muscling up a fastbreak layup to give his team the 11-8 lead. A&M forward Zach Clemence prevented the run from extending before guard Ali Dibba started and concluded a 7-0 run with a 3-pointer by Pop Isaacs.

The duo of McGlockton and Nickel continued to cook with a burst of energy as a 10-0 run was given up by the Aggies’ defense, who drew the whistle and sent the Commodores to the line. Seven of the last eight points before heading to the locker room were recorded by Hill as three easy layups fell in the hoop.

From the field, A&M and Vanderbilt were 67 percent from behind the arc at the break. The significant difference was that Vanderbilt made trips to the charity stripe, hauled in more rebounds, and caused more turnovers.

Opening up the second half, Agee was the first scorer again, where he buried one of his free throws to get things going for A&M. Vanderbilt continued to fire away at their pace, where Nickel stuck back-to-back threes before guard Chandler Bing drained one of his own to go into the media timeout.

Shortly after, McMillan continued to try to mix up his lineup on the floor, where he threw in Federiko Federiko with Agee to try to get something going inside, but fouls spiraled as guard Tyler Tanner and Federiko were chirping at each other, which drew the referee to see enough and assess technicals to both players.

The Aggies’ offense saw daylight after getting to single digits after guard Rylan Griffen and Agee got a basket to fall, but McGlockton continued to hammer his way inside with a layup in the paint and two shots from the line.

Pressing along was A&M, who continued to harp on the half-court and full-court press but were unable to get it to pay off as Vanderbilt galloped its way to the finish line with a Quad 1 win at Memorial Gymnasium.

The Maroon and White concluded with 30 bench points, 40 paint points while shooting 39 percent from the field and 28 percent from three.

With the loss, A&M has dropped its fourth-straight game, where they'll return home for a matchup with Ole Miss on Wednesday, February 18, at 6 p.m. on the SEC Network.