COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Almost 13,000 packed out Reed Arena Saturday morning for a top-10 matchup between the No. 7 Aggies and No. 6 Volunteers.
It was a back and forth battle, most of this one until Tennessee was able to pull away in the final few minutes, knocking down some big shots and handing A&M their second consecutive loss with a 77-69 win over the Aggies.
“Thankful for the students that were here, the people that were here,” Texas A&M head coach Buzz Williams said. “I thought the environment was tremendous and I thought it was a really good game. We're disappointed in the results.”
A&M struggled to defend Tennessee's Chaz Lanier, who finished with a season high 30 points, going 8-13 from behind the arc.
“It's always good to see the ball go in the hole,” Lanier said. “But, I just saw that A&M was really sinking into the paint and my guys were just finding me at the three point line, and they were just making great passes and I just knocked them in.”
“We changed some of our coverages in the second half because of his [Lanier] prowess in the first half,” Williams said. “13 threes is really difficult to overcome by any team, but when one player makes 8 of the 13, that probably means you're going to be upside down somewhere, particularly in the first half we were.”
A&M shot just under 17% from three, finishing 5-30. The Vols were able to keep Wade Taylor IV scoreless from deep and held Zurich Phelps to just 1-7 from behind the arc.
“It just didn't go in, you know,” Phelps said. “I think we liked all the shots that we shot, you know, from behind the arc, so we just got to get those reps up, knock them down. The ball gets to us, so you know that's something we'll work on, you know, tomorrow and so on.”
Saturday's loss marks the second time this season the Aggies have lost back-to-back games, so responding at home Wednesday night will be important as they enter the final two weeks of the regular season.
“As a team, you know, we want to stick to our foundation,” Phelps said. “We're not going to let this affect us, you know, we got to get better. The game is over so, you know, just preparing for Vandy, let's just get better, move on and learn the lesson.”
Next up, the Aggies will try and get back in the win column when they host Vanderbilt Wednesday night. Tipoff at Reed Arena is set for 6 p.m.
