FINAL: Kentucky knocked out of SEC Tournament, falls to Texas A&M 97-87

Kentucky’s 2024 SEC Tournament run in Nashville didn’t even make it to the weekend.

During Friday night’s quarterfinal matchup between the two-seeded Wildcats and the seven-seeded Texas A&M Aggies, it was the underdog that moved on to Saturday’s semifinals. Fueled by 32 points from Wade Taylor IV, Texas A&M made 11 three-pointers en route to a 97-87 upset win over Kentucky.

Kentucky received 27 points from freshman Rob Dillingham, 14 from Reed Sheppard, and 13 from Antonio Reeves. Despite shooting 49 percent from the floor and 40 percent from distance, Kentucky couldn’t slow down a physical Texas A&M squad and its 26 second-chance points. The Aggies shot 46.4 percent overall and only turned the ball over six times.

Texas A&M came into the game ranking 350th in the country in three-point shooting at 27.7 percent. For those unaware, that’s second-to-last in the entire country. But what I’m about to say next won’t shock you: the Aggies couldn’t miss from deep in the first half, even making its first four from deep.

Kentucky quickly fell into an 8-1 deficit not even two minutes into the action. While high pace favored the ‘Cats, Texas A&M was red-hot. But the tide shifted in UK’s favor once Dillingham and Sheppard checked in. Kentucky took its first lead, 16-15, at the 13:15 mark. Sheppard, in particular, got rolling.

The SEC Freshman of the Year poured in 14 first-half points, even hitting back-to-back triples at one point. Dillingham had 11 of his own, but Wade Taylor and his 18 points couldn’t be stopped. Eventually, Texas A&M ballooned its lead to double-digits. Kentucky typically had an answer, but the Aggies always did too.

A made three-pointer from Tyrece Radford, one of eight first-half makes from deep for A&M, gave the Aggies its largest lead of the game to this point at 11 with 3:08 until the intermission. Kentucky was able to cut it down to six by the break despite Reeves playing just nine minutes due to foul trouble.

Texas A&M finally cooled off from deep to start the second half, but Kentucky still couldn’t get all the way back. The Aggies decided to go into the paint and immediately made a living. Reeves actually made it a three-point game right out of the gate, but soon picked up his third foul and went straight back to the bench.

The Aggies continued to fend off the ‘Cats from there, taking an eight-point lead into the under 12-minute media timeout. It grew to 12 a few minutes later once A&M hit its first triple of the second half with 8:56 to go. Kentucky’s offense stalled out and the defense was flustered — we saw a zone defense for a handful of possessions.

And just like that, Texas A&M rediscovered its outside shooting — all it took was one to go in. The Aggies would hit two more (open) three-pointers on back-to-back possessions to take a 14-point advantage with only seven minutes in the game. The ‘Cats punched back though. Dillingham hit a pair of triples before a Justin Edwards dunk made it an eight-point affair with 4:22 on the clock. A pair of free throws from Reeves cut it down to six.

Kentucky’s comeback attempt didn’t last long though. Texas A&M went back ahead by eight at the two-minute mark and then by 10 with 90 seconds to go. The Aggies hit enough free throws down the stretch to pull out the win, a huge boost for its NCAA Tournament resume.

On to the Big Dance…