Aggies Deliver Top 10 Upset of Wildcats to Advance to Semifinals

Friday, March 15

Nashville, Tenn.

6:00 PM

Texas A&M

20-13,9-9SEC

Kentucky

23-9,13-5SEC

Texas A&M

Kentucky

Mar 15, 2024 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Highlights Postgame Press Conference Tournament Info Photo Gallery

By: Brad Marquardt, Assistant AD/Athletics Communications

NASHVILLE – Led by an enormous night from junior Wade Taylor IV, the Texas A&M men's basketball team took the fight to second-seeded Kentucky from the opening tip and handed the No. 9 Wildcats a 97-87 upset defeat on Friday at Bridgestone Arena.

With the victory, the Aggies advance to the semifinals of the SEC Tournament for the third straight year and tallied their 20^th victory of the year while improving to 20-13. Buzz Williams became the third Texas A&M head coach to lead the Aggies to three straight 20-win campaigns, joining Billy Gillispie and Mark Turgeon.

Buoyed by Taylor's four first-half 3-pointers, the Aggies took the lead for good with 13 minutes remaining in the opening half and beat back every Wildcat advance. Kentucky briefly made it a one-possession game early in the second half, but the Aggies responded with the next four points and the Wildcats never got closer than four for the remainder of the game.

Taylor, the 6-foot do-it-all dynamo from Dallas, poured in 32 points while connecting on six 3-pointers, making 4-of-5 free throws and distributing three assists. It was Taylor's nation-leading fourth 30-point game against Associated Press Top 25 opponents.

Graduate guard Tyrece Radford, from Baton Rouge, filled the box score with 23 points while also reeling in seven rebounds and dishing out six assists. It was Boots' ninth SEC Tournament game with 10 or more points, which tied the tourney record originally set by Auburn's Chuck "The Rifleman" Person and Alabama's Buck Johnson.

Combined with junior Manny Obaseki's 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting, the Aggies' guard trio combined to score 72 of the team's 97 total points.

Taylor and Radford continue to climb the career scoring list in SEC Tournament game with Taylor scoring 143 points and Radford posting 136 points, both in nine games. The SEC career record for points at the Tournament is 187 by Tennessee's Alan Houston from 1990-93, followed by 167 by Johnson and 162 by South Carolina's BJ McKie.

The Aggies got another big-time performance from sophomore Solomon Washington, who contributed his trademark lock-down defense while scoring 11 points, seven rebounds, two blocks and two steals. He also contributed a pair of UK momentum-crushing 3-pointers.

Next up for the Maroon & White is a matchup against the winner of the Alabama-Florida quarterfinal game that will start 25 minutes after the conclusion of the first semifinal contest between Mississippi State and Auburn.

GAME NOTES:
EXPERIENCE WINS: The Aggie core veterans of Tyrece Radford, Wade Taylor IV, Henry Coleman III, Manny Obaseki and Hayden Hefner have now won 72 games over the past three seasons, which is one victory from matching the best three-season total of 73 by the 2007-10 Aggies.

DYNAMIC DUO: Wade Taylor IV and Tyrece Radford combined for 55 points. Taylor was the high point leader with 32 while tying his season-high of six threes. The last time he scored over 30 was against Ole Miss on Jan. 27. Texas A&M is now 15-7 when the tandem scores more than 10 points each and 11-2 when they reach 14.

HIGH POINT AGS: The Aggies tied a season-high 97 points, matching the regular season thriller against the Wildcats that Texas A&M won in overtime, 97-92. Over the five-game win streak Texas A&M has averaged 81.6 points while holding their opponents to 68.6. Before the Maroon & White were averaging 74.3 points per game.

WINNIING THE TURNOVER BATTLE: Texas A&M only gave up the ball six times while forcing 14 Wildcat turnovers. This led to 18 Aggie points off turnovers while Kentucky was only able to get four. A&M is now 13-2 when recording nine or less turnovers in a game this season.

PUTBACK: The Maroon & White grabbed 13 offensive boards to Kentucky's nine. This led to the Aggies 26 second-chance points while the Wildcats only had nine.

ONE GAME AT A TIME: Texas A&M has now beaten Kentucky in back to back games for the first time since joining the SEC in 2012-13. Tonight's win marked the Aggies' first victory over Kentucky in the SEC Tournament.

IV: Taylor's 32 points pushed him over 1,500 for his career. He is the fourth player in program history with over 1,500 points and 350 assists. He joins Bernard King who scored 1,990 and had 550 assists from 1999-03, Acie Law IV with 1,669 points and 545 assists from 2003-07 and Donald Sloan who had 1,522 points and dished out 370 assists from 2006-10.