Antonio Reeves' big day leads Kentucky past Texas A&M, 76-67

Just keep on winning, ‘Cats.

On Saturday afternoon in Rupp Arena, the Kentucky Wildcats (13-6, 4-3 SEC) took down the Texas A&M Aggies (13-6; 5-1 SEC) in a battle that came down to the closing minutes, securing a 76-67 win and pushing the program’s win streak to three. Kentucky went 11-32 from beyond the arc, the team’s most shots from three-point range since 2011, while Texas A&M shot just 3-16 from deep.

Antonio Reeves was the star of the day for UK, dropping a season-high 23 points on 8-17 shooting. Oscar Tshiebwe followed up his 37-point, 24-rebound performance on Tuesday with a modest seven points and 17 rebounds. Jacob Toppin chipped in 17 points, four rebounds, and three assists. Kentucky outrebounded the Aggies 17-4 on the offensive glass.

Another game, another slow start for the ‘Cats. Kentucky didn’t score its first points of the afternoon until about four minutes in when CJ Fredrick finally got his team on the board with a triple. The defense was playing well though, preventing Texas A&M from taking advantage of the cold-shooting start.

UK began to find its offensive groove once the three shooter lineup of Wallace, Fredrick, and Reeves was inserted. Even Chris Livingston was getting involved from beyond the arc, knocking down a pair of threes in less than 60 seconds. Kentucky held its biggest lead of the half, 21-15, with under eight minutes until the break, but once Tshiebwe was tagged with his second foul, the momentum shifted back to Texas A&M.

With Kentucky’s best player on the bench, the Aggies closed the half on a 16-8 run to take a 31-29 lead into the break. Despite the ‘Cats attempting 21 shots from deep (the team’s most across an entire game since taking 23 in the loss to Missouri in late December), only seven of them went through the net for a 33.3 percent mark. Cason Wallace and Fredrick were a combined 1-14 from beyond the arc in the opening 20 minutes.

Out of the locker room, Kentucky continued to get open looks from deep, but the cold streak didn’t exactly heat up. It became a back-and-forth affair over the next 10 minutes with neither side going ahead by more than five points. It wasn’t until Reeves began to knock down some timely shots that the ‘Cats tried to break away. But Texas A&M always had an answer, keeping the score close and finding ways to rack up points.

At the under-four-minute media timeout, UK held a 65-61 lead. From there, it was the Antonio Reeves show. The Illinois State transfer hit a pair of much-needed buckets that all but iced the win for Kentucky. Fredrick made it a six-point game with under 60 seconds left as the ‘Cats hit enough free throws down the stretch to lock up the victory.