Saturday, February 20
College Station
5:30 PM
Texas A&M
9-520-7; SEC
79
vs
77
Kentucky
10-420-7; SEC
1
2
OT 1
F
Kentucky
36
32
9
77
Texas A&M
35
33
11
79
Photo by: Texas A&M Athletics
Buzzer Beater Lifts Aggies Past No. 14 Kentucky in OT
Feb 20, 2016 | Men's Basketball
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP)-- Tyler Davis' putback at the buzzer gave Texas A&M a 79-77 win over No. 14 Kentucky in overtime on Saturday after a technical foul on Isaac Humphries cost the Wildcats the lead in the final seconds.
With the clock winding down, Danuel House drove into traffic and missed a contested shot that hit the front of the rim. The ball caromed directly to Davis, who grabbed the rebound and banked in a layup as time expired.
The freshman center finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds.
Anthony Collins missed a shot with 9 seconds left for Texas A&M (20-7, 9-5 Southeastern Conference), and Humphries pulled down the rebound with the Wildcats up by one. But after the Aggies fouled him, he slammed the ball to the court and was whistled for a technical that fouled him out.
House made both free throws to give A&M a 77-76 lead. Skal Labissiere hit one of two foul shots for Kentucky (20-7, 10-4) to tie it before the final possession.
Tyler Ulis had 22 points and 11 assists for Kentucky, which had won four straight.
Jalen Jones led A&M with 24 points.
Jamal Murray scored four straight points to put Kentucky up 72-70 in overtime. A three-point play by Jones gave A&M a 73-72 lead with less than 3 minutes left in OT.
Humphries made a pair of free throws to help Kentucky regain the lead before House hit two that put the Aggies up 75-74 with 1:36 left.
Ulis sank a jumper to give Kentucky a 76-75 edge with 1:11 remaining.
Marcus Lee tied it at 68 with an alley-oop dunk on a pass from Ulis with 43.9 seconds left in the second half.
Lee blocked a layup attempt by House, and Davis fouled Lee, sending him to the line with 31 seconds to go. But his free throw bounced off the rim.
The Aggies had a chance to win in regulation, but House missed a jump shot.
Murray added 21 points for Kentucky, and Humphries had six points and 12 rebounds.
Kentucky led by three after scoring four straight points early in the second half. House and Jones then made 3-pointers on consecutive possessions sandwiched around a monster dunk by Lee to take a 45-44 lead.
A 3-pointer by Ulis gave Kentucky a one-point lead a couple of minutes after that. House intercepted a bad pass by Ulis a few seconds later and missed a layup on the other end, but Jones grabbed the rebound and finished with a two-handed dunk to make it 50-49 with 15 minutes left.
That basket was the first of seven straight points for the Aggies that pushed the lead to 55-49.
The Aggies were up by seven soon after that when they were called for a technical after a foul and Ulis made all four free throws to cut the lead to 59-55 with 11 minutes remaining.
Ulis made it six points in a row when he hit a layup after that to get Kentucky within two.
The Aggies led by two after a three-point play by Alex Caruso near the end of the first half. But Derek Willis hit a 3-pointer after that to give the Wildcats a 36-35 lead at halftime.
Texas A&M Basketball
Postgame Notes
Texas A&M 79, #14 Kentucky 77
Feb. 20, 2016 • Reed Arena (College Station, Texas)
RECORDS & SERIES NOTES
• Courtesy of a Tyler Davis put-back buzzer beater, Texas A&M defeated No. 14 Kentucky 79-77 in overtime Saturday inside Reed Arena.
• With the win, Texas A&M improved to 20-7 on the season including a 9-5 mark in SEC play … The 20-win campaign stands out as the 15th in program history as well as the ninth in the last 12 years.
• The series now stands at 5-3 in favor of the Wildcats with three of the five meetings as SEC members going into overtime, including all three affairs at Reed Arena.
TEAM NOTES
• The game featured 29 lead changes and seven ties with the biggest lead being an eight-point advantage by the Aggies at the 11:54 mark of the second half.
• The Aggies owned a 41-36 advantage on the boards, including a season-high tying 20 on the offensive glass … The disparity lead to a 22-11 A&M advantage in second-chance points.
• In the second half and overtime, the Aggies were perfect on second-chance opportunities, scoring 10 points on five offensive rebounds.
• Texas A&M used the starting combination of Anthony Collins, Alex Caruso, Danuel House, Jalen Jones and Tyler Davis for the 13th time this season (9-4).
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
• Senior Jalen Jones scored a game-high 24 points in the win, making 9-of-19 field goals, matching a career-high with four 3-point baskets … For the Dallas native it was his 10th game with 20 or more points this season as well as the 13th overall for this two-year career at A&M.
• In addition to his heroics during the game's final seconds, rookie Tyler Davis notched his second career double-double, contributing 15 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.
• Senior Alex Caruso and DJ Hogg also hit double-digit points in the contest, finishing with 10 points apiece.
• Senior Anthony Collins dished out eight assists for the Aggies while committing no turnovers
• Texas A&M head coach Billy Kennedy is now 91-68 in his fifth season at Texas A&M and 302-247 in 18 seasons as head coach.
TEXAS A&M VS. RANKED TEAMS THIS SEASON
• Texas A&M has faced five ranked teams this season, owning a 4-1 in those contests. Three of the victories have come inside Reed Arena while Nov. 26th's victory over then 10th-ranked Gonzaga came in the Bahamas during the Battle4Atlantis.
AGGIES VS. RANKED TEAMS
Date Opponent Score Leading Scorer
Nov. 26 #16 Gonzaga (Bahamas) W, 62-61 House (19)
Dec. 19 #16 Baylor W, 80-61 House, Jones (17)
Jan. 31 #14 Iowa State W, 72-62 House (20)
Feb. 6 #25 South Carolina L, 81-78 Caruso, House (16)
Feb. 20 #14 Kentucky W, 79-77 (OT) Jones (24)
UP NEXT
• The Aggies conclude their three-game home stand by hosting Mississippi State at Reed Arena on Wednesday at 6 p.m. … The game will be televised by ESPN2.
Texas A&M Basketball
Postgame Quotes
Texas A&M 79, #14 Kentucky 77 (OT)
Feb. 20, 2016 ? Reed Arena
BILLY KENNEDY, TEXAS A&M HEAD COACH
Opening statement…
"It was a heck of a game, real fortunate to get the win. I was really impressed with Kentucky's guards. Obviously down the stretch, they made it hard to put them away and I'm proud of our guys for being resilient and hanging tough and fighting and figuring out a way to win. Tyler Davis, what a heck of a play he made at the end and went to the rim like he was supposed to and made a big shot."
On technical fouls…
"I thought both technicals weren't very good so it was a little bit different, but I mean if you're going to call a blocked foul when you think it's a blocked foul, kid slams a ball on the floor, that's the rule. That's a technical foul. You're going to call a tech on me, running in our huddle and running out when I come back out and I'm wrong and I need a tech. I think as long as they call it right when they see it and what they believe in, I can live with that."
On being a part of the game's atmosphere…
"It was thrilling. Obviously, until the end I thought we had pretty good control of the game but I was really impressed with [Tyler] Ulis and [Jamal] Murray, the plays that they made, the special plays and the lob play that they executed down the stretch and their defense was really, really good but we didn't execute. We had some possessions that weren't very good offensively that we need to clean up. We were fortunate."
On A&M and UK going into overtime for consecutive years…
"I hope it's not overtime next time and I hope we can win. But, I guess it was our turn, it was our turn. I think style of play has a lot to do with it, just defensively and offensively how we both like to play mostly man. We played man the whole game. Our guys, everybody raises a level up when Kentucky comes in and it's interesting and again I'm proud and excited we won but when you have the Kentucky jersey on, you can see those kids think they're going to win every game and that's a credit to John Calipari and what he's done with the program. That's what I was really proud of our guys this year, we were resilient and I thought we thought we were going to win the game. We never thought we weren't going to win the game, that's why we were fortunate to win."
JALEN JONES, TEXAS A&M SENIOR GUARD/FORWARD
On Super Bowl MVP Von Miller giving the team a pre-game pep talk…
"It was incredible. I watched him throughout the season and I watched a couple of his highlights on YouTube. Just an incredible athlete and it really meant a lot and he gave us an extra boost of motivation to go out there and play hard."
On impact of the win moving forward…
"It just means that we're getting on the steps of being on the right track where we were earlier in the season, how we know we're a good team and we're all clicking and doing the right things. We've just got to continue to build on this and take it one day at a time."
TYLER DAVIS, TEXAS A&M FRESHMAN CENTER
On his perspective of the last play of the game…
"Once Danuel [House] got the ball, I knew he was going to either shoot it or drive it. He was getting to the basket, he just wasn't getting some calls. But, I kept my guy on my backside and once he put the shot up, I just had a chance to grab the board and put it back in."
On emotions during game…
"What was going through my head when we were going into the first overtime, I felt like I was drained from my energy just flowing all night. I was like 'Dang, I'm drained right now' but got no choice but to keep playing hard and we did that."
On Texas A&M team…
"We're a good team as well, we can play with anybody. I know we can. I just believe in my teammates. I know we can compete with any team in America so whoever we step on the court with, in my mind, I'm ready to go to war with my teammates."
JOHN CALIPARI, KENTUCKY HEAD COACH
Opening statement…
"Our kids fought, I was proud of them, and so did Texas A&M. They fought. That was a heck of a basketball game, just the play at the very end there that kind of sullied up the game. That's what it did. They played, Billy had them ready for our stuff. I thought we played well offensively and did enough, we just didn't rebound. We started rebounding late and had to go zone because we couldn't guard them. We were a couple of rebounds away from creating a gap and we just couldn't seem to get them."
On the difference in the game…
"They were right from the start of the game way more aggressive, way more physical, wedged us, got into our bodies and we weren't ready to battle back."
On rebounding from the loss…
"Here's the hard thing, these kids are not machines and they're not computers. It's hard for them to [have] unbelievable energy every night. When I walked in, Billy (Kennedy) looked at me and laughed and said, 'You have to do this every night you coach.' This is what we see. We either find it or we get beat. Today, I thought we had it and I thought we had a lot of good stuff going on. Texas A&M did what they had to to make sure that it was close. You wait for that one thing to happen, boom, the game changes. You lose and you go home."
On Texas A&M's resume…
"They've lost road games. Everybody is losing road games across the country. In this league it's the hardest league in the country to win a road game. He's fine. A&M's fine and A&M is a NCAA Tournament team."
TYLER ULIS, KENTUCKY SOPHOMORE GUARD
On the end of the game…
"When Isaac [Humphries] got that big block, he's a big reason why we were up at the end. Rebounding the ball, blocking shots, I mean he got it and we were all so excited and ran to him. He was excited as well. He started to throw it and he tried to [stop it] but it came out of his hands. He was saying sorry but he really has nothing to be sorry about. He was a big help in this game and did his job."
On players getting hurt…
"I wouldn't say I feel good about it because we lost but I feel like everyone that had to step up came in and fought. Like I said Isaac [Humphries] came in and did a great job. He had 12 boards and he came in threw his body around. They had a lot of offensive rebounds as well and they had a lot of threes. That's what we have to work on."
On giving [Jamal] Murray the ball in overtime…
"I think he hit a three. Once he hits a shot we know where he goes from there. We just kept feeding him and feeding him because he's just making plays happen."
JAMAL MURRAY, KENTUCKY FRESHMAN GUARD
On Kentucky's quick turnaround from Thursday to Saturday's game…
"We are aware that [A&M] had four days to prepare for us and we had one. We were focused but guys banged up and guys tired, fatigued. We did a great job but just not enough."
With the clock winding down, Danuel House drove into traffic and missed a contested shot that hit the front of the rim. The ball caromed directly to Davis, who grabbed the rebound and banked in a layup as time expired.
The freshman center finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds.
Anthony Collins missed a shot with 9 seconds left for Texas A&M (20-7, 9-5 Southeastern Conference), and Humphries pulled down the rebound with the Wildcats up by one. But after the Aggies fouled him, he slammed the ball to the court and was whistled for a technical that fouled him out.
House made both free throws to give A&M a 77-76 lead. Skal Labissiere hit one of two foul shots for Kentucky (20-7, 10-4) to tie it before the final possession.
Tyler Ulis had 22 points and 11 assists for Kentucky, which had won four straight.
Jalen Jones led A&M with 24 points.
Jamal Murray scored four straight points to put Kentucky up 72-70 in overtime. A three-point play by Jones gave A&M a 73-72 lead with less than 3 minutes left in OT.
Humphries made a pair of free throws to help Kentucky regain the lead before House hit two that put the Aggies up 75-74 with 1:36 left.
Ulis sank a jumper to give Kentucky a 76-75 edge with 1:11 remaining.
Marcus Lee tied it at 68 with an alley-oop dunk on a pass from Ulis with 43.9 seconds left in the second half.
Lee blocked a layup attempt by House, and Davis fouled Lee, sending him to the line with 31 seconds to go. But his free throw bounced off the rim.
The Aggies had a chance to win in regulation, but House missed a jump shot.
Murray added 21 points for Kentucky, and Humphries had six points and 12 rebounds.
Kentucky led by three after scoring four straight points early in the second half. House and Jones then made 3-pointers on consecutive possessions sandwiched around a monster dunk by Lee to take a 45-44 lead.
A 3-pointer by Ulis gave Kentucky a one-point lead a couple of minutes after that. House intercepted a bad pass by Ulis a few seconds later and missed a layup on the other end, but Jones grabbed the rebound and finished with a two-handed dunk to make it 50-49 with 15 minutes left.
That basket was the first of seven straight points for the Aggies that pushed the lead to 55-49.
The Aggies were up by seven soon after that when they were called for a technical after a foul and Ulis made all four free throws to cut the lead to 59-55 with 11 minutes remaining.
Ulis made it six points in a row when he hit a layup after that to get Kentucky within two.
The Aggies led by two after a three-point play by Alex Caruso near the end of the first half. But Derek Willis hit a 3-pointer after that to give the Wildcats a 36-35 lead at halftime.
Texas A&M Basketball
Postgame Notes
Texas A&M 79, #14 Kentucky 77
Feb. 20, 2016 • Reed Arena (College Station, Texas)
RECORDS & SERIES NOTES
• Courtesy of a Tyler Davis put-back buzzer beater, Texas A&M defeated No. 14 Kentucky 79-77 in overtime Saturday inside Reed Arena.
• With the win, Texas A&M improved to 20-7 on the season including a 9-5 mark in SEC play … The 20-win campaign stands out as the 15th in program history as well as the ninth in the last 12 years.
• The series now stands at 5-3 in favor of the Wildcats with three of the five meetings as SEC members going into overtime, including all three affairs at Reed Arena.
TEAM NOTES
• The game featured 29 lead changes and seven ties with the biggest lead being an eight-point advantage by the Aggies at the 11:54 mark of the second half.
• The Aggies owned a 41-36 advantage on the boards, including a season-high tying 20 on the offensive glass … The disparity lead to a 22-11 A&M advantage in second-chance points.
• In the second half and overtime, the Aggies were perfect on second-chance opportunities, scoring 10 points on five offensive rebounds.
• Texas A&M used the starting combination of Anthony Collins, Alex Caruso, Danuel House, Jalen Jones and Tyler Davis for the 13th time this season (9-4).
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
• Senior Jalen Jones scored a game-high 24 points in the win, making 9-of-19 field goals, matching a career-high with four 3-point baskets … For the Dallas native it was his 10th game with 20 or more points this season as well as the 13th overall for this two-year career at A&M.
• In addition to his heroics during the game's final seconds, rookie Tyler Davis notched his second career double-double, contributing 15 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.
• Senior Alex Caruso and DJ Hogg also hit double-digit points in the contest, finishing with 10 points apiece.
• Senior Anthony Collins dished out eight assists for the Aggies while committing no turnovers
• Texas A&M head coach Billy Kennedy is now 91-68 in his fifth season at Texas A&M and 302-247 in 18 seasons as head coach.
TEXAS A&M VS. RANKED TEAMS THIS SEASON
• Texas A&M has faced five ranked teams this season, owning a 4-1 in those contests. Three of the victories have come inside Reed Arena while Nov. 26th's victory over then 10th-ranked Gonzaga came in the Bahamas during the Battle4Atlantis.
AGGIES VS. RANKED TEAMS
Date Opponent Score Leading Scorer
Nov. 26 #16 Gonzaga (Bahamas) W, 62-61 House (19)
Dec. 19 #16 Baylor W, 80-61 House, Jones (17)
Jan. 31 #14 Iowa State W, 72-62 House (20)
Feb. 6 #25 South Carolina L, 81-78 Caruso, House (16)
Feb. 20 #14 Kentucky W, 79-77 (OT) Jones (24)
UP NEXT
• The Aggies conclude their three-game home stand by hosting Mississippi State at Reed Arena on Wednesday at 6 p.m. … The game will be televised by ESPN2.
Texas A&M Basketball
Postgame Quotes
Texas A&M 79, #14 Kentucky 77 (OT)
Feb. 20, 2016 ? Reed Arena
BILLY KENNEDY, TEXAS A&M HEAD COACH
Opening statement…
"It was a heck of a game, real fortunate to get the win. I was really impressed with Kentucky's guards. Obviously down the stretch, they made it hard to put them away and I'm proud of our guys for being resilient and hanging tough and fighting and figuring out a way to win. Tyler Davis, what a heck of a play he made at the end and went to the rim like he was supposed to and made a big shot."
On technical fouls…
"I thought both technicals weren't very good so it was a little bit different, but I mean if you're going to call a blocked foul when you think it's a blocked foul, kid slams a ball on the floor, that's the rule. That's a technical foul. You're going to call a tech on me, running in our huddle and running out when I come back out and I'm wrong and I need a tech. I think as long as they call it right when they see it and what they believe in, I can live with that."
On being a part of the game's atmosphere…
"It was thrilling. Obviously, until the end I thought we had pretty good control of the game but I was really impressed with [Tyler] Ulis and [Jamal] Murray, the plays that they made, the special plays and the lob play that they executed down the stretch and their defense was really, really good but we didn't execute. We had some possessions that weren't very good offensively that we need to clean up. We were fortunate."
On A&M and UK going into overtime for consecutive years…
"I hope it's not overtime next time and I hope we can win. But, I guess it was our turn, it was our turn. I think style of play has a lot to do with it, just defensively and offensively how we both like to play mostly man. We played man the whole game. Our guys, everybody raises a level up when Kentucky comes in and it's interesting and again I'm proud and excited we won but when you have the Kentucky jersey on, you can see those kids think they're going to win every game and that's a credit to John Calipari and what he's done with the program. That's what I was really proud of our guys this year, we were resilient and I thought we thought we were going to win the game. We never thought we weren't going to win the game, that's why we were fortunate to win."
JALEN JONES, TEXAS A&M SENIOR GUARD/FORWARD
On Super Bowl MVP Von Miller giving the team a pre-game pep talk…
"It was incredible. I watched him throughout the season and I watched a couple of his highlights on YouTube. Just an incredible athlete and it really meant a lot and he gave us an extra boost of motivation to go out there and play hard."
On impact of the win moving forward…
"It just means that we're getting on the steps of being on the right track where we were earlier in the season, how we know we're a good team and we're all clicking and doing the right things. We've just got to continue to build on this and take it one day at a time."
TYLER DAVIS, TEXAS A&M FRESHMAN CENTER
On his perspective of the last play of the game…
"Once Danuel [House] got the ball, I knew he was going to either shoot it or drive it. He was getting to the basket, he just wasn't getting some calls. But, I kept my guy on my backside and once he put the shot up, I just had a chance to grab the board and put it back in."
On emotions during game…
"What was going through my head when we were going into the first overtime, I felt like I was drained from my energy just flowing all night. I was like 'Dang, I'm drained right now' but got no choice but to keep playing hard and we did that."
On Texas A&M team…
"We're a good team as well, we can play with anybody. I know we can. I just believe in my teammates. I know we can compete with any team in America so whoever we step on the court with, in my mind, I'm ready to go to war with my teammates."
JOHN CALIPARI, KENTUCKY HEAD COACH
Opening statement…
"Our kids fought, I was proud of them, and so did Texas A&M. They fought. That was a heck of a basketball game, just the play at the very end there that kind of sullied up the game. That's what it did. They played, Billy had them ready for our stuff. I thought we played well offensively and did enough, we just didn't rebound. We started rebounding late and had to go zone because we couldn't guard them. We were a couple of rebounds away from creating a gap and we just couldn't seem to get them."
On the difference in the game…
"They were right from the start of the game way more aggressive, way more physical, wedged us, got into our bodies and we weren't ready to battle back."
On rebounding from the loss…
"Here's the hard thing, these kids are not machines and they're not computers. It's hard for them to [have] unbelievable energy every night. When I walked in, Billy (Kennedy) looked at me and laughed and said, 'You have to do this every night you coach.' This is what we see. We either find it or we get beat. Today, I thought we had it and I thought we had a lot of good stuff going on. Texas A&M did what they had to to make sure that it was close. You wait for that one thing to happen, boom, the game changes. You lose and you go home."
On Texas A&M's resume…
"They've lost road games. Everybody is losing road games across the country. In this league it's the hardest league in the country to win a road game. He's fine. A&M's fine and A&M is a NCAA Tournament team."
TYLER ULIS, KENTUCKY SOPHOMORE GUARD
On the end of the game…
"When Isaac [Humphries] got that big block, he's a big reason why we were up at the end. Rebounding the ball, blocking shots, I mean he got it and we were all so excited and ran to him. He was excited as well. He started to throw it and he tried to [stop it] but it came out of his hands. He was saying sorry but he really has nothing to be sorry about. He was a big help in this game and did his job."
On players getting hurt…
"I wouldn't say I feel good about it because we lost but I feel like everyone that had to step up came in and fought. Like I said Isaac [Humphries] came in and did a great job. He had 12 boards and he came in threw his body around. They had a lot of offensive rebounds as well and they had a lot of threes. That's what we have to work on."
On giving [Jamal] Murray the ball in overtime…
"I think he hit a three. Once he hits a shot we know where he goes from there. We just kept feeding him and feeding him because he's just making plays happen."
JAMAL MURRAY, KENTUCKY FRESHMAN GUARD
On Kentucky's quick turnaround from Thursday to Saturday's game…
"We are aware that [A&M] had four days to prepare for us and we had one. We were focused but guys banged up and guys tired, fatigued. We did a great job but just not enough."
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Team Stats
UK
TAMU
FG%
.500
.389
3FG%
.500
.375
FT%
.765
.583
RB
36
41
TO
9
7
STL
3
5
Game Leaders
Pts
24
FGM
9
3FGM
4
FTM
2
Pts
15
FGM
5
3FGM
0
FTM
5
Pts
10
FGM
4
3FGM
1
FTM
1
Players Mentioned
G
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