Aggies rally past Hogs, win 67-61
NASHVILLE — Wade Taylor IV scored 18 points and Henry Coleman III had a doubledouble, helping 18th-ranked, second-seeded Texas A&M rally from a 13-point deficit early in the second half to beat 10th-seeded Arkansas 67-61 in a Southeastern Conference tournament quarterfinal Friday night at Bridgestone Arena.
Texas A&M (24-8) advanced for the second straight year to the semifinals, where the Aggies will face the winner of Friday’s late quarterfinal between sixth-seeded Vanderbilt (19-13) and 23rd-ranked, third-seeded Kentucky (21-10) in Saturday’s second semifinal.
Top-seeded Alabama (27-5) and fourth-seeded Missouri (24-8) meet at 1 p.m. Eastern in the first semifinal.
The Aggies lost to Tennessee in the 2022 championship game, but there will be no rematch. The Volunteers’ bid to repeat ended with Friday’s quarterfinal loss to Missouri.
Coleman had 16 points and 11 rebounds Friday, and Dennis Dexter and Tyrece Radford each added 11 points for Texas A&M.
Nick Smith led with 16 points and Makhi Mitchell finished with 15 for Arkansas (20-13), which must wait until the NCAA tournament’s 68-team bracket is revealed Sunday evening to learn its postseason fate.
Jordan Walsh made a 3-point shot at the first-half buzzer to send the Razorbacks to the locker room with a 38-25 lead. Texas A&M trailed 40-27 early in the second half before surging to go ahead 46-45 on Dexter’s jump shot with 10:26 remaining.
The Aggies, who split the regular-season series with Arkansas, were the better team inside in the third meeting, outrebounding the Razorbacks 43-26 and finishing with a 36-28 scoring edge in the paint — although the Hogs did have an 11-2 advantage on blocked shots.
Arkansas also had nine steals while forcing Texas A&M into 15 turnovers and used that for a 15-5 scoring difference in fastbreak points.