Entering overtime against sixth-ranked Kentucky with five minutes to completely absolve a slow SEC start to the College Station faithful, Buzz Williams’ bunch leaned on a familiar formula: rebounding
America’s best offensive rebounding team finished with a plus-eight margin on the glass Saturday afternoon, hauling in four crucial offensive boards in OT as Texas A&M beat Kentucky for just the third time in a decade, 95-91.
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While the Aggies’ have endured a turbulent shot-making season thus far, entering Saturday ranked 326th with a 46.1 effective field percentage, their stars poured in tough baskets early and often at Reed Arena. Wade Taylor IV and Tyrese Radford combined for 59 points, not to mention 15 rebounds and nine assists, and jointly engineered a mini 7-0 run to put the Aggies up 15-8 early.
Taylor swished another triple, his third of the half, to give the Aggies a game-high 11-point lead later on, but Kentucky would respond immediately with an 18-6 run to give the Wildcats a one-point edge moments before halftime.
Kentucky’s exerted further control coming out of the locker room as Texas A&M struggled to contain the Cats’ balanced scoring approach — seven UK players ended with at least seven points Saturday — and Reed Shepherd would can a triple to grant Kentucky its largest lead of the game at 65-58 midway through the second half. In swooped Tyrese Radford, however, as Taylor proved more erratic in the second half, scoring the Aggies’ next eight points and quickly pulling TAMU within just a point.
A see-sawing affair finally saw Texas A&M reclaim their lead with six minutes remaining in the second half, as Wade Taylor found Wildens Leveque for a slam before converting a pair at the stripe to give his squad a 74-71 edge. The Aggies stretched their advantage out to four on a number of occasions inside the final three minutes, but dead-eyed freshman Rob Dillingham seemed to have an answer each time — the North Carolina native converted three triples a scintillating crunch-time stretch, the last of which leveled the game at 87 with 67 second remaining.
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Sloppy late game execution seemed to gift a regulation win to the Aggies, as an Anderson Garcia steal allowed TAMU to convert a pair of FTs and Tre Mitchell’s response careened off the front rim. Reed Shepherd earned a loose-ball foul with less than a second remaining, however, earning a trip to the line and, eventually, overtime.
The Aggies’ superior physicality shone through in a low-scoring overtime period, earning numerous free throws and dominating the glass on both ends — a three offensive-rebound possession consumed more than a minute of clock — as they salted away a historic victory.