Watermelon Rind: Aggies knock off No. 11 Tennessee

“One of the guys on the bench said, ‘Thanks for the ring last year,’” point guard Wade Taylor said. “That stuck with me all game.”

It took 11 months, but the Aggies got a measure of revenge Tuesday night.

Taylor scored 25 points and Julius Marble added a career-high 21 as the No. 25 Aggies (21-7, 13-2 SEC) took out the No. 11 Volunteers (20-8, 9-6 SEC) in a very physical 68-63 win before 12,989 at Reed Arena. With one more win, the Aggies will clinch second place in the SEC standings.

"My heart is tired. I think our players’ hearts are tired," coach Buzz Williams said, noting the Aggies have played three times in nine days. "The last 12 to 15 minutes, I thought that the fight and the determination and togetherness, spirit and voice they competed then the state was as good as I've ever seen in that situation."

Taylor and Marble not only carried the offensive load, they were clutch when it mattered. Taylor hit four free throws and Marble added two in the final 46 seconds to keep the Aggies out of reach of a potential Vols rally.

The Aggies started off very slow, falling behind 9-0 before Julius Marble got the Aggies on the board. But Marble, along with Taylor, went on a personal 10-4 run to get the Aggies back into the game.

Marble and Taylor would score A&M’s first 21 points, before Andersson Garcia hit a 3 to pull the Aggies within 27-24 with 3:36 left in the half. That shot, along with a change of gameplan, seemed to energize A&M.

After starting the game trying to back down Tennessee’s taller big men with Marble and Henry Coleman, A&M switched to attacking right at them with their guards. Taylor went to the line eight times in the half, hitting all of his free throws.

"We started running actions to give those guys a chance to make a play for themselves or make a play for someone else and/or get fouled," Williams said.

"We began to attack with sort of running actions to give those guys to get those guys in position to make a play. for themselves and make a play for someone else.

Boots Radford, who drove to the hoop three different times with nothing to show for it, finally got one to fall after an offensive rebound to cut Tennessee's lead to 29-28 with 1:23 to go; after a steal by Taylor, Andre Gordon lined up a 3 from straight on and hit it to give the Aggies a 31-28 lead. The Vols would pick up a layup from Tobi Awaka as time expired to knot the game at 31 as the teams headed to the locker room.

The Aggies came out with the same aggression they showed late in the first half to start the second, with Radford getting a layup and foul to put A&M up 4. Tennessee would come back with 5 points of their own, but Dexter Dennis hit a short-range jumper to put the Aggies up 42-41.

After Tennessee’s third shot clock violation of the game, Taylor found a cutting Marble in the lane for a dunk and a 44-41 lead. A steal by Gordon led up to a layup by Dennis to put the Aggies up 5, 46-41.

“We knew we had to hit them,” Marble said.

Fouls became a big part of the game by the middle of the second half, with both teams shooting foul shots with more than 10 minutes left. Foul shots got Tennessee back within 4 with 10:33 to go, but Radford scored on a reverse layup to put A&M back up 54-48.

A 3 by Tennessee’s Olivier Nkamhoua (13 points) cut A&M’s lead in half and the Vols had a chance to cut into it further, but Taylor picked Nkamhoua’s pocket and raced down the court for a layup, that he missed. Gordon, the smallest player on the court, grabbed the offensive rebound and kicked it back out to Radford, who hit a 3 to put the Aggies up 57-51 with 7:54 left.

But the Vols did not go away.

Guard Santiago Vescovi (14 points) hit a 3 to halve the lead once again, then point guard Zakai Zeigler scored on a layup to whittle A&M's lead down to 1 with 7 minutes to go.

But while Tennessee could cut A&M’s lead to a single point several times, they never took the lead. Marble forced his way into the paint and hit a hook shot to put A&M back up 3 with 6:39 to go; after Vescovi hit a driving layup, Taylor responded with one of his own on the other end.

Marble hit one of two free throws with 3:04 left to put A&M up 4, which turned out to be crucial as Zeigler hit a deep 3 with 2:18 to go.

Neither team scored for more than 90 seconds, until Marble grabbed an offensive rebound off a Taylor missed 3 and was fouled with 46.6 seconds left. He hit both free throws, putting A&M up 3. Ziegler made a quick layup, setting up the play of the game with just 22 seconds left.

After A&M had trouble inbounding the ball and called a timeout, Gordon inbounded to Radford, who was stripped by Vescovi. Just as quickly, Taylor poked the ball away and stole it back, forcing Vescovi to foul him for the decisive free throws.

“I was just being my brother’s keeper,” Taylor said.

The change of events clearly irritated Tennessee coach Rick Barnes, who was taunted with “Watermelon rind” signs by the Reed Rowdies, harkening back to his disdainful comments for the 12th Man during his days at Texas.

His frustration — and an absurd seven video reviews — weren’t enough to change the outcome, as Zeigler missed a 3 with 6 seconds left and Taylor hit two more of his 16 free throws (in 17 attempts) for the final margin.

Tennessee out rebounded A&M 32-30 and pulled down more offensive boards 14-11 after piling up a huge margin early.

A&M hit 28 of 34 free throw attempts, while Tennessee only made 10-14.

Tennessee shot 40% from the field and 29% (9-31) from 3; A&M hit 39% and 27% (4-15) respectively.

A&M forced 16 Tennessee turnovers while turning the ball over 14 times.

The Aggies had more second-chance points than Tennessee, 17-16.

A&M led in points in the paint 26–24.