No. 9 Tennessee tops Texas A&M for SEC tourney title
Santiago Vescovi scored 17 points and Josiah-Jordan James had 16 points and 10 rebounds to help ninth-ranked Tennessee beat Texas A&M 65-50 on Sunday to claim its first men’s SEC basketball tournament title in 43 years.
The second-seeded Volunteers (26-7) never trailed, rattling off the first 14 points of the afternoon and winning for the 12th time in 13 games following a one-point loss at Texas in late January.
Auburn and Kentucky entered the SEC Tournament ranked in the top five and Arkansas was as hot as any team in the country down the stretch, but Tennessee has emerged as the top team in the league after beating each of those other rivals in the past two weeks.
Kennedy Chandler had 14 points and seven assists for Tennessee, which recorded assists on 19 of 22 baskets, including the first 10 the Vols made after halftime.
Playing its fourth game in four days, Texas A&M (23-12) started slowly and never recovered.
The Aggies missed their first eight shots — seven of them 3-point attempts — while Tennessee began the game with Chandler making a 3-pointer, James delivering a 3-point play and then hitting a shot from behind the arc for a quick 9-0 lead.
It was 14-0 before Henry
Coleman finally scored for Texas A&M, which never trimmed its deficit to fewer than five the rest of the way. The Aggies missed all nine of their 3-point attempts in the opening half while shooting 27% overall (6 of 22) from the field.
Tennessee also was outstanding defending the 3-point line in Saturday’s 69-62 semifinal victory over fifth-ranked Kentucky, which finished 2 of 20 from beyond the arc. Since yielding 80 points in a 10-point victory over Texas A&M in Knoxville on Feb. 1, the Vols have held 10 of 12 SEC opponents under 65.
The closest Texas A&M got after the slow start was five, 34-29, on Tyrece Radford’s 3-pointer early in the second half. Chandler answered with a 3 and Vescovi followed with a another to finish a 9-0 burst that rebuilt the lead to 14.
Chandler, falling out of bounds, shoveled a nifty underhand pass to James in the corner, where the Tennessee forward sank a 3-pointer that gave the Vols, who led by as many as 18, their biggest lead of the day.
Radford led Texas A&M, which beat Florida, fourthranked Auburn and No. 15 Arkansas to reach its first SEC Tournament final, with 13 points. Henry Coleman finished with 12 points and seven rebounds for the Aggies, who likely played their way into the NCAA Tournament with three wins in Tampa.
Tennessee won the conference for the first time since 1979. The Vols were in the final for the third time in five years after losing to Kentucky in 2018 and Auburn in 2019.
NO. 6 RICHMAOND 64, NO. 1 DAVIDSON 62 » Jacob Gilyard scored 26 points, Tyler Burton had 16 points and 12 rebounds and No. 6 seed Richmond beat topseeded Davidson 64-62 on Sunday to clinch the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament and an NCAA Tournament berth for the first time in 11 years.
Richmond (23-12) was playing in the A-10 championship game — needing two 15-point comebacks in the early rounds — for the first time since winning in 2011. The Spiders are making their 10th trip to the NCAAs, the first since making the Sweet 16 in that 2011 season.
With Davidson’s 27-6 record and resume, Richmond’s win likely knocked out a bubble team.
The Spiders lost a home game to Davidson 87-84 on Jan. 14 when Michael Jones hit a game-winning 3-pointer with three seconds remaining. Jones had another chance to win this game, getting an inbounds pass with 1.7 seconds left, but his contested 3-pointer from the corner didn’t hit the rim as time expired.
Richmond went six-plus minutes without a field goal down the stretch until Burton completed three-point plays on back-to-back possession to get the Spiders within 62-60. Davidson dribbled down the clock and missed a 3-pointer and Burton missed a baseline jumper at the other end but his airball went off a Davidson player.
After a timeout, Matt Grace powered into the lane and completed another three-point play — his first points of the game — to give Richmond a 63-62 lead with 19.1 seconds left. Foster Loyer had a good look at a 3-pointer at the other end but it rolled out and Gilyard, an 85.7% freethrow shooter, was fouled before making 1 of 2 free throws at 2.9.
Davidson called a timeout at 2.5 and Richmond called another after seeing how the Wildcats set up. Davidson made a halfcourt pass and called another timeout with 1.7 left, but Jones’ shot was off.
Gilyard was 9 of 18 from the field, including a long jumper early in the second half to reach 2,000 career points, becoming just the fifth player in program history to do so.
Sam Mennenga scored 18 points and Jones finished with 17 for Davidson. Luka Brajkovic, the A-10 player of the year, had 13 points and 11 rebounds.
Mennenga made his fourth straight 3-pointer to give Davidson a 49-42 lead with 10:03 remaining but the Wildcats didn’t make their next field goal until Brajkovic at 4:45. Richmond tied it on three different occasions during Davidson’s field-goal drought but couldn’t take the lead until the closing seconds.