Aggies upset 5th-seeded Bulldogs
Texas A&M, after winning two of its 16 games in SEC regular-season play, was widely predicted to make a courtesy call at the Southeastern Conference’s postseason powwow and begin planning for next season.
The party-crashing Aggies have now won their first two games of the SEC tournament. Thirteenth-seeded A&M defeated fifth-seeded Mississippi State 79-72 on Thursday afternoon in Greenville, S.C.
The Aggies’ upset of a team that won more than four times as many SEC games in the regular season followed A&M’S 7770 victory over 12th-seeded Vanderbilt in the tournament’s opening game on Wednesday. MSU, under first-year coach Sam Purcell, exits Greenville at 20-10 overall and will start regrouping for the NCAA Tournament.
The Aggies became the lowest-seeded team to advance to the SEC tournament
quarterfinals under its current format, according to the SEC. The only chance for A&M (9-19) under firstyear coach Joni Taylor to make the event that truly matters nationally — the NCAA Tournament — is to earn the SEC’S automatic bid by winning the league tournament.
The Aggies will face fourth-seeded Mississippi (22-7) at 1 p.m. Friday in their improbable quest to make the NCAA postseason for the first time in two years. The rested
Rebels have yet to play in the SEC tournament as one of its top four seeds.
A&M needs to win three more games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday to win the SEC tournament. The Aggies on Thursday were led by freshman guard Sydney Bowles’ 19 points, as she made 6-of-8 3-pointers. That sterling showing followed Bowles’ careerhigh 22 points against Vanderbilt, which featured her sinking 6-of-12 from the 3-point line.
Twelve years ago, under then-coach Gary Blair, the Aggies won the school’s first national title in basketball, baseball or football since the football program won a championship in 1939. Blair, who’s been celebrated around Aggieland since, retired at the end of last season.
A&M athletic director Ross Bjork turned to Taylor, who played at Alabama and had been Georgia’s head coach since 2015. Taylor was 140-75 over seven seasons with the Bulldogs and made the NCAA Tournament four times in that span, including advancing to the second round in 2021 and 2022.
“They’re coachable and they’re teachable, and we’re enjoying this process,” Taylor said of her first A&M squad, which finished 8-20 overall and 2-14 in the regular season against SEC foes.