Texas A&M is riding the momentum of its biggest winning margin in Southeastern Conference play since joining the league for the 2012-13 season.
The Aggies (12-5, 4-0 SEC) also seek their seventh straight win when they entertain Florida (10-7, 3-2) on Wednesday night in College Station, Texas.
Texas A&M is fresh off a dominating 94-53 road victory at South Carolina. The 41-point margin tops a 34-point win (79-45) over Georgia during the 2015-16 season as the Aggies’ biggest triumph in SEC play.
Texas A&M had a stellar 46-16 rebounding margin and held the Gamecocks to 38 percent shooting from the field.
Aggies coach Buzz Williams points to the defensive improvement as a key ingredient during the six-game winning streak. Texas A&M has held three teams to 56 or fewer during the span, with the most allowed being 66.
“I think our staff has done a really good job in the first two weeks of SEC play of taking the core of what we do defensively and then what’s specific to the opponent,” Williams said. “I also think our guys should get some credit because those adjustments in real time, when it’s not the core of what you do, in order to win in this league, you have to be on point.”
Wade Taylor IV leads the Aggies with a 15.6 scoring average.
Texas A&M is looking for a regular-season sweep of Florida after defeating the Gators 66-63 in Gainesville on Jan. 4.
Since that setback, Florida has won three consecutive games, including Saturday’s 73-64 home win over then-No. 20 Missouri.
The recent success has changed the outlook of the Gators’ season.
“It’s big, being able to trust (the process),” leading scorer Colin Castleton said. “We were at .500. We all just came together and said we got to figure this out — whatever we have to do to get it done to win games is the biggest thing.
“We had a couple close (losses), and we can’t get those back. We can only get what’s ahead of us and that was our goal.”
Castleton had 16 points and 13 rebounds against Missouri for his third double-double of the season. He also went over 1,000 career points (1,005) to become the 55th player in Gators’ history to reach the milestone.
Castleton leads Florida in scoring (15.0), rebounding (7.8) and blocked shots (3.1) per game.
–Field Level Media