Texas A&M vs Texas basketball: Poor free-throw shooting dooms Aggies at SEC tournament
Nashville, Tenn. — A poor night from the free-throw stripe and poor shooting in overtime ultimately doomed Texas A&M men's basketball on Thursday in the SEC tournament.
A double-overtime thriller that saw the Aggies and Longhorns exchanging leads on several occasions, it was ultimately A&M's 12-for-31 day at the free-throw line that was its undoing, 94-89.
"I thought a lot of our guys did a lot of really good things. And credit to Texas, their players, their coaches, they did a lot of great things," head coach Buzz Williams said following the loss. "Regardless of the seed, regardless of the opponent, not just in the SEC Tournament, but wherever we are next week, I think (that game) is why they call it March Madness."
The Aggies went into halftime trailing 33-27 after shooting 9-for-27 from the field; however, A&M came out of the halftime break playing exactly how they had hoped, recapturing the lead with an 8-0 run. From there, the Longhorns stunted the surge and came back to regain a one-possession lead at the second media timeout.
Ultimately, the Longhorns, led by guard Tre Johnson's 20 points, kept their NCAA Tournament hopes alive, sending the Aggies home from the conference tournament after one game.
Five-seeded A&M entered the SEC tournament on a two-game winning streak, including a big-time upset over Auburn. The Longhorns survived and advanced Wednesday with a win over Vanderbilt. Texas will now face Tennessee Friday to continue its run, while the Aggies await their seeding fate on Selection Sunday.
"I thought every single person in that locker room, coaches, managers, all were ten-toes, all wanted to be in the fight," Aggies forward Henry Coleman III said. "I think we fought in the middle of the ring the entire time."
A&M shot 25-for-72 (39%) from the field. The Aggies' undoing, however, was at the free throw line, shooting 27-for-40 (67.5%).
Guard Wade Taylor IV led the Aggies with a game-high 29 points while shooting 5-for-18. Coleman grabbed a team-high 13 rebounds Thursday, adding 10 points in 36 minutes.
The Longhorns were outrebounded by the Aggies 53-40 while shooting 31-for-72 from the field (43%) and 23-for-31 (xx%) from the free-throw line.
A&M entered the matchup ranked 16th in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll and 14th in the Associated Press Top 25, while Texas came in unranked.
Now, A&M will find out what happens on Selection Sunday. The Aggies are still expected to have a high seed for the NCAA Tournament.
Reach Texas A&M beat reporter Tony Catalina via email at ACatalina@gannett.com. Follow the American-Statesman on Facebook and X for more. Your subscription makes work like this possible. Get access to all of our best content with this tremendous offer.
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This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: SEC tournament scores: Texas A&M loses to Texas
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