Surging Aggies win fifth straight in SEC
Texas A&M and Missouri were in a tight game late in the first half Saturday night in Mizzou Arena when A&M guard Dexter Dennis skied for a block of what appeared to be an easy layup on a fast break by the Tigers’ Sean East.
A&M guard Tyrece Radford hustled to keep the slapped ball from bouncing out of bounds, and the result was a hardearned Dennis basket in the paint on the other end. It was that kind of night for the high-flying, hustling Aggies, who earned their fifth straight victory in Southeastern Conference play, this time 69-60 before a crowded house in Columbia, Mo.
The Aggies, buoyed by a long-range 3-pointer by Wade Taylor IV at the halftime buzzer, led 39-25 at the break and were never seriously threatened the rest of the way in jetting to their fourth consecutive victory in Mizzou Arena, and in sweeping the regular season series from the Tigers (19-8, 7-7 SEC) and firstyear coach Dennis Gates.
A&M also cruised to an 82-64 victory in College Station on Jan. 11. The Aggies on Saturday were led by Taylor’s 21 points and Dennis’ 10 rebounds to go with his 17 points. They prevailed by nine points despite committing 21 turnovers compared to a dozen by the Tigers, and A&M led for nearly 36 of the game’s 40 minutes.
“There was a moment in time we had nearly as many turnovers as made shots,” A&M coach Buzz Williams said on his postgame radio show of the Aggies’ 13 early miscues.
The Aggies (20-7, 12-2) return to Reed Arena on Tuesday night against No. 10 Tennessee and ex-Texas coach Rick Barnes. A&M has lost three consecutive games to Tennessee, once in College Station in 2021 and twice last season, in Knoxville, Tenn., during the regular season and in the SEC tournament title game in Tampa, Fla.
The Volunteers (20-7, 9-5) lost 66-54 at rising Kentucky on Saturday, after defeating top-ranked Alabama 68-59 on Wednesday in Knoxville.
Meantime A&M under its fourth-year coach Williams remains unranked despite standing alone in second in SEC play behind Alabama, primarily because of what happened to the Aggies in nonconference play: head-scratching — especially in retrospect — losses to Murray State, Colorado, Boise State and Wofford leading to league play.
ESPN NCAA Tournament pundit Joe Lunardi now has A&M as a No. 9 seed in the NCAA postseason after having the Aggies just on the outside looking in only a couple of weeks ago.
A&M has never come close to winning a dozen of its first 14 league games in prior seasons since joining the SEC in the summer of 2012. Former coach Billy Kennedy’s 2016 and 2018 A&M teams that advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament were 9-5 and 6-8, respectively, after 14 SEC games.
“Our team is still finding ways to improve, and our staff is still searching and trying to discover ways to make us a possession better, or two possessions better,” Williams said.