Florida reaches SEC final, rallying to beat Texas A&M, 95-90
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Denzel Aberdeen scored a career-high 20 points in helping Florida rally from an 18-point deficit and beat Texas A&M 95-90 at the Southeastern Conference Tournament semifinals on Saturday.
The sixth-seeded Gators (24-10) earned Florida’s first trip to the tournament finals since 2014. The Gators not only won the SEC, they reached the Final Four that year. They will play No. 12 Auburn, a 7366 winner over Mississippi State, for the league’s automatic NCAA Tournament berth on Sunday.
Aberdeen led six Gators in double figures. Will Richard scored 19 followed by Walter Clayton, Jr., with 16. Zyon Pullin and Tyrese Samuel had 15 apiece.
Texas A&M (20-14), the No. 7 seed, scored the first five points of the game and led 40-22 with 5:20 left in the half.
Wade Taylor IV paced Texas A&M with a gamehigh 30 points. Sol Washington and Tyrece Radford each scored 18 and Manny Obaseki added 12.
Florida rallied in the final 3:17 to cut in the lead down late in the first half, but Manny Obaseki’s layup with 6 seconds left gave Texas A&M a 50-42 halftime lead.
The Gators opened the second half with five straight points to get within 54-52. Clayton hit a 3-pointer with 13:11 remaining for a 59-58 lead that was their first of the game. Texas A&M tied it up at 70 and again at 72. Florida went on an 8-0 run to take the lead for good.
BIG PICTURE
Texas A&M: In the regular season, Texas A&M edged Florida 67-66 as only the second team to hold the Gators under 70 points. This was the third straight trip to the semifinals for Texas A&M. Buzz Williams is the third coach to win 20 games in three straight seasons with the Aggies.
Florida: This was the first trip to the semifinals for Florida since 2019. Florida has won three games in the tournament with an opening 85-80 win over No. 11-seed Georgia and a 102-88 romp over No. 3 Alabama. The Gators sealed the win over A&M by going 7-of-8 at the free throw line in the final 94 seconds.
AUBURN 73, MISSISSIPPI STATE 66
NASHVILLE, Tenn — Dylan Cardwell scored his only points on consecutive dunks in the final minutes as No. 12 Auburn held off ninth-seeded Mississippi State 73-66 on Saturday to reach the Southeastern Conference Tournament champi
onship game.
With the SEC’S top three seeds losing their openers Friday for the first time in this tournament since 1983, that left a wide-open path for Auburn (26-7) to win the event for the first time since 2019. The Tigers are in the title game for the fifth time in program history.
They will play either Texas A&M or Florida as they try to win Auburn’s third title.
Chad Baker-mazara led five Tigers in double figures with 14 points. Denver Jones and Jaylin Williams each added 13. Johni Broome and Tre Donaldson had 10 apiece.
Josh Hubbard scored 17 of his 20 points in the second half, trying to rally Mississippi State (21-13). The Bulldogs go home shy of the championship game continuing a drought that started after their last berth in 2010.
D.J. Jeffries had 12 points for Mississippi State, and Tolu Smith II had 10.
Mississippi State had pulled to within 57-56 on seven straight points when Cardwell got his only buckets of the game. His first dunk came with 4:40 left, then he dunked again with 4:08 remaining before running over in front of some Auburn fans to celebrate with a scream.
This was a chippy game, with double technicals handed out not once but twice. Auburn junior Johni Broome needed a trainer to treat his nose at one point early in the second half with the Tigers up 39-35.
Mississippi State led 3129 before Williams beat the buzzer driving to the basket for a layup, tying it up at 31 going into halftime after Auburn trailed 12-4 early. Broome’s 3 in the opening minute of the second half put the Tigers ahead to stay.