Aggies Take Down Ole Miss for 14th SEC Win
With their SEC title hopes on the line, the Texas A&M Aggies took the court against Ole Miss for their second of two away games ahead of their season finale at home against No. 2 Alabama.
And despite another slow start to begin the game, Texas A&M found its rhythm in the second half to put together a 69-61 win over the Rebels.
In exactly half of their last 10 games, the Aggies had to overcome deficits of eight points or more, with Tuesday’s game being no exception.
And though the Aggies led for the entirety of the second half, Ole Miss junior guard Matthew Murrell dropped a season-high 26 points, helping keep them within striking distance for most of the remainder of the game.
Early in the game, nothing seemed to click offensively for Texas A&M, as it scored just 11 points in the first 10 minutes of play.
In a similar fashion to their matchup against Arkansas, however, junior guard Hayden Hefner provided the Aggies with a spark on two quick layups that started a 9-0 run to tie the game at 20 points a piece.
Coming out of the ensuing media timeout, sophomore guard Wade Taylor IV picked up a half-court steal, leading to another made basket by freshman forward Solomon Washington to give Texas A&M its first lead of the game.
Unfortunately for the Aggies, that lead was short lived, and Ole Miss responded with a pair of 3s on their end to go back up by four points. Both teams continued to go back and forth, but it was Texas A&M that came away with the lead entering intermission.
Murrell had his way in the first half, tallying 11 points on nearly perfect shooting behind the arc, but Taylor responded with six points and two steals of his own to help give the Aggies their lead back. Hefner also scored six, and tied Taylor for the team-high in the first half.
Coming out of halftime, Texas A&M continued to build on its momentum, adding seven more points — five of which were scored by junior guard Tyrece Radford — to extend its lead to ten points, 42-32.
The Aggies' bid to pull away early in the second half was stopped by Murrell, who knocked down his fifth 3-pointer to bring the Rebels back within five with 14 minutes to play. That point differential continued until around the 10-minute mark, when Radford hit his third triple to put his team back up by nine.
Murrell and company got within four points with about three minutes to play, but after a timeout by Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams, the Aggies finished on a 6-2 run to close out the game, which was iced by Texas A&M forward Andersson Garcia.
With the win, Texas A&M tied its program-high conference wins with 14, and will have the chance to break that record at home against the No. 2 ranked Crimson Tide, who will make the trip to Reed Arena on Saturday.
Tipoff in College Station is at 11:00 a.m. and will be televised nationally on CBS.
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