Don’t expect any lack of attention or a loss of focus when No. 6 Tennessee squares off against No. 7 Texas A&M on Saturday afternoon in a key Southeastern Conference clash at College Station, Texas.
The Aggies (20-6, 9-4 SEC) head home after a 70-64 loss at No. 21 Mississippi State on Tuesday that snapped a five-game winning streak. Zhuric Phelps led Texas A&M with 13 points while CJ Wilcher and Wade Taylor IV added 11 points each and Andersson Garcia collected 10 rebounds for the Aggies.
A&M led by a point at halftime, but missed its first eight shots of the second half and ended up shooting just 28 percent from the floor after the half. The Aggies committed 19 turnovers, their second-most of the season.
“The first half was probably more like what everybody probably anticipated, more of a rock fight,” Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams said after the loss. “If you’re outscored 17 points in the second half, there’s probably some outlier stats. I think ours would be turnovers. Our offense really hurt our defense. We turned the ball over 28 percent of the time when we had it.”
The Aggies enter Game 2 of a five-game stretch where they face four Top 25 foes. After today’s dustup with Tennessee (21-5, 8-5), Texas A&M plays dangerous Vanderbilt at home before traveling to No. 2 Florida on March 1. The Aggies then host No. 1 Auburn on March 4.
The Volunteers travel to the Brazos Valley on the heels of an 81-76 home win over Vanderbilt on Saturday. Zakai Zeigler scored all of his season-high 22 points in the second half and added eight assists to spur Tennessee’s rally from 16 points down.
Zeigler canned seven of his nine shots in the second half, Chaz Lanier added 21 points and eight rebounds and Igor Milicic Jr. hit for 10 points as the Volunteers avoided a season sweep at the hands of Vanderbilt and won for their fourth time in their past five games.
Tennessee made its final seven shots from the floor and was seven of 10 from the charity stripe in the final seven minutes against Vanderbilt. It needed all that and more after a first half that left coach Rick Barnes scratching his head.
“You just wonder where their head might be because some of the mistakes that we make early,” Barnes said Monday. “It is perplexing and we are into the middle of February. With that said, there’s a lot of people who would like to be where we are right now. But that’s not the standard we have set. Our standard is higher than that. We expect more.
“Maybe we have too many guys that are too comfortable right now. We are not going to be comfortable. We are not going to sit here like we have accomplished something because we haven’t yet in terms of where we want to be.”
The Volunteers needed their mid-week bye, Barnes said.
Texas A&M has captured two of the past three meetings with Tennessee, with the wins coming in College Station each of the last two seasons. The Volunteers dismantled A&M 86-51 last year in Knoxville.
–Field Level Media
