COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) -- Grant Williams scored 22 points and No. 1 Tennessee set a school record with its 16th straight win, beating Texas A&M 93-76 on Saturday night.
The Volunteers (20-1, 8-0 Southeastern Conference) surpassed the 15-game streak they had from February 1915 to January 1917 and are off to their best start in conference play since also going 8-0 in 1981-82.
Tennessee was clinging to a two-point lead midway through the second half before a 5-0 run, capped by a 3-pointer from Jordan Bowden, made it 70-63. Those five points were the start of a 10-3 spurt, with a 3 from Lamonte Turner that extended the lead to 75-66 with 8 1/2 minutes to go. Williams added a dunk in that stretch and had a big defensive play with a block on TJ Starks.
Wendell Mitchell and Savion Flagg made 3-pointers for A&M to power 6-3 run after that, but Tennessee scored the next seven points to stretch the lead to 85-72 with about 6 1/2 minutes remaining.
Mitchell finished with 18 points for Texas A&M (8-12, 1-7), which lost for the fifth time in the last six games.
Jordan Bone added 18 points and 10 assists for Tennessee and Turner had 19 points and seven assists. Williams, the SEC's leading scorer, had 10 rebounds and four assists.
The Volunteers led by 7 at halftime and had pushed their lead to 60-51 with about 13 minutes left. Mitchell made a 3-pointer for A&M and then stole the ball on the other end. He was fouled on the fast break by Turner and made 1 of 2 free throws to get the Aggies within 5. p
Texas A&M got a 3-pointer by Brandon Mahan after that to make it a 7-0 run and cut the lead to 60-58. Bone got Tennessee going after that with a 3-pointer, but Mitchell hit another 3 for Texas A&M to leave the lead at 2.
Bowden scored 16 in his return after missing the team's last game with a knee injury. Tennessee led by as many as 19 in the first half but the Aggies cut the lead to 46-39 by halftime.
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Texas A&M Basketball Postgame Notes
#1 Tennessee 93, Texas A&M 76
Reed Arena (College Station, Texas)Â
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ABOUT THE GAME
- The Aggies drop to 8-12 on the year, 1-7 in SEC play after a hard fought battle with top-ranked Tennessee Saturday night. A&M got back within two midway through the second half after trailing by as many as 19.
- Tennessee was able to get out to a double-figure lead before the first media timeout of the game, forcing the Aggies to burn a timeout early.
- A&M responded with a 10-0 run to get the difference back within single digits, eventually cutting it to four with 4:44 remaining until halftime.
- The Vols took a 46-39 lead into the break, before Wendell Mitchel sparked the Aggies, scoring the team's first seven points of the new half.
- A&M continued to fight, cutting the difference to two, but was unable to get over the hump.
- The Aggies knocked down a season-best 12 threes in the game, with junior Wendell Mitchell and sophomore Brandon Mahan each hitting four.
- A&M saw five players score in double figures in a game for the third time this season.
- The Aggies used the starting lineup of TJ Starks, Wendell Mitchell, Savion Flagg, Josh Nebo and Christian Mekowulu for the first time this season.
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
- Junior Wendell Mitchell used another strong second half to lead the Aggies with 18 points, all coming in the second period.
- Sophomore TJ Starks matched his career high in assists, dishing out eight in the game.
- Sophomore Brandon Mahan added 12 points for the Aggies, reaching double figures for the first time since the Marshall game.
- Junior Josh Nebo made his first start as an Aggie, adding 10 points and six boards.
- Billy Kennedy is now 145-110 in his eight-year tenure at Texas A&M and 356-289 in his 21 seasons as a head coach.
UP NEXT
The Aggies will hit the road next week for a pair of games away from Reed Arena. A&M will start the week facing Ole Miss in Oxford on Wednesday, Feb. 6 at 6 p.m.
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POSTGAME QUOTES
Texas A&M Head Coach Billy Kennedy
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Opening Statement…
"Unfortunately for us, we played the number one team in the country that played like the number one team in the country. I thought offensively, they were by far the best offensive team that we've played. I thought our guys competed and fought hard. I felt we wore them down a little bit and that's when we made that run. Defensively is where we were hit hard, and we couldn't guard."
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On the difficulty of guarding their depth…
"When their guards play so good, you have Jordan Bone, [who] goes perfect from the field, he has ten assists and only two turnovers. You got the inside with Grant Williams and (Admiral) Schofield, who are able to post up. You can't. It's hard to help off of anybody. When you do they make you pay because of their experience and they really know how to play together."
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On Tennessee's offensive shooting performance…
"They played like the number one team in the country. For them to get beat, they're going to have to miss shots, and they didn't. They went 9-for-20 from the three and 40-for-62 from the field, that's just about 65 percent. You can win a lot of games when you shoot the ball like that."
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On if he felt they played well enough to win…
"Obviously we didn't play well enough to win. We could have done a lot of things better. We missed some free throws that were critical. You've got to get all of those points against this team. When we started out the game, our transition defense wasn't good. They played at a different pace than we did."
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On if they played as well as they could play…
"Offensively we only had 10 turnovers against a good defensive team and made 12 threes. That's probably the most we have made all year. So offensively we were good. Then defensively I thought we could have done some things better, but again those guys played really good."
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Junior Guard Wendell Mitchell
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On how frustrating it was to start the game with Tennessee shooting nearly 90%...
"I feel like we just had to play defense and catch up the whole time. They were getting a lot of good looks. They made a lot of tough shots also."
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On cutting the lead down to two…
"We were just staying together and talking to each other. We knew we had to take it one possession at a time."
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Sophomore Guard/Forward Savion Flagg
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On Tennessee having five guys score 14-or-more points…
"You really can't help off anyone when they were shooting as well as they were. You couldn't double Grant (Williams) because he is kicking out and making a play, so it was hard to key in on one guy."
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On if man-to-man or zone worked best…
"I think man-to-man, but sometimes we lost our spots and we were getting screened and not communicating at times."
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On what he was thinking when Tennessee started the game on a run…
"Keep fighting. We go through this all the time in practice. One team gets up and it is all about fighting back all the time. It is like against Florida, they didn't shoot well in the first half and they had that great second half. Tennessee just kept shooting it well, and that is credit to their coach for putting them into a great offense to get them open shots."