No. 8 Texas A&M pull away late to seal win over Arkansas
February 15 - Wade Taylor IV scored 18 points and keyed a late Texas A&M surge as the eighth-ranked Aggies pulled away over the final eight minutes for a 69-61 win over Arkansas on Saturday afternoon in a Southeastern Conference clash in College Station, Texas.
A&M never trailed after the 12:30 mark of the first half. The game was tied at 50-50 with just over eight minutes to play until the Aggies (20-5, 9-3 SEC) reeled off a 9-0 run culminated by a putback layup by Henry Coleman III with 5:08 remaining.
A layup and then a free throw by Andersson Garcia stoked the A&M lead to a game-high 11 points with 2:45 to play. Arkansas never got closer than seven points the rest of the way as the Aggies won their fifth straight game.
Zhuric Phelps added 12 points and a game-high nine rebounds for A&M while Garcia had 11 points.
Karter Knox led the Razorbacks (15-10, 4-8 SEC) with 17 points while Zvonimir Ivisic added 13 and Adou Thiero had 10 points before he fouled out with 2:45 to play. Arkansas has dropped two of its past three games.
The Razorbacks owned the game's initial four-plus minutes, roaring out to an 8-0 lead after Johnell Davis's 3-pointer at the 16:43 mark. Texas A&M missed its first seven shots and committed three turnovers in that opening stretch that put it behind the eight-ball early on.
Phelps' jumper with 15:01 remaining in the half finally got the Aggies on the board. His 3-pointer and then a dunk and a layup from Pharrel Payne -- the latter at the 12:59 mark -- propelled A&M into a 10-9 lead.
The teams traded the front through the rest of the half, with a 3-pointer by C.J. Wilcher with 25 seconds to play allowing A&M a 33-28 advantage at the break.
Knox led all scorers with nine points before halftime while Phelps' seven points paced the Aggies.
A&M expanded its lead to seven points twice over the first five and a half minutes of the second half, the second on a Phelps steal and dunk with 14:26 to play. Arkansas swung back, getting layups from Thiero and Davis to pull to within 46-43 with 13:21 left.
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Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'One of the other fascinating things that's starting to happen that happened when Tiger was on that run was his peers started to talk about him in the same way that Tiger's fellow competitors talked about him. You saw Jordan [Spieth] talk about him last week and a few others. I just found it fascinating that it's getting to the point that his peers are even talking about how good he is and how great he's playing and how hard it is to beat him, and I think that even helps your advantage when you're the guy that others are talking about.'
