Wade Taylor IV scored 20 points while leading Texas A&M to an 80-71 win over Ole Miss in the second round of the Southeastern Conference tournament on Thursday in Nashville.
The seventh-seeded Aggies (19-13) registered their fourth consecutive victory and gave a much-needed boost t their NCAA Tournament resume. They advance to a quarterfinal matchup with ninth-ranked and second-seeded Kentucky.
Jaemyn Brakefield put up 23 points to top the 10th-seeded Rebels (20-12), who took their third loss in a row and fell for the sixth time in seven games.
Texas A&M produced its largest lead of the game, 61-48, on a 3-pointer from Tyrece Radford with 4:52 to go.
Ole Miss ran off the next 10 consecutive points and pulled within 61-58 on Matthew Murrell’s trey with 2:16 to play.
The Aggies scored the game’s next four points at the foul line, and a layup from Andersson Garcia with 1:08 remaining increased the gap to 67-58.
Murrell sank another 3-pointer with 43 seconds left, slicing the margin to six.
Manny Obaseki hit two free throws for Texas A&M, and the Aggies added seven more points at the line to wrap up the victory.
Free throws were crucial for Texas A&M, which made 27 of 37 at the line. Ole Miss was just 12 of 21 on foul shots.
The Rebels shot 41.7 percent from the floor while limiting the Aggies to 36.9 percent shooting. Texas A&M also was boosted by a 48-32 rebounding advantage, including a 21-9 edge on the offensive glass that led to a 21-4 difference in second-chance points.
The Aggies got scoring key contributions from Radford (18), Solomon Washington (13 points), Obaseki (12) and Garcia (11). Garcia added 14 rebounds, and Washington had nine boards before fouling out.
Allen Flanigan scored 17 points for the Rebels before fouling out. Murrell (14) and Jaylen Murray (10) also wound up in double figures.
–Field Level Media