No. 11 Tennessee can't get past No. 25 Texas A&M in College Station, 68-63

Santiago Vescovi had the steal with 17 seconds left for Tennessee Tuesday night, the Vols trailing by one at Reed Arena in College Station. Then Wade Taylor IV took the ball back, got fouled, hit two free throws on the other end and decided the game as the Aggies held on for a 68-63 win.

Nkamhoua missed a 3-point attempt off the dribble with 33 seconds left, down three. Zakai Zeigler scored with 25 seconds left, to make it a one-point game, but it was as close as the Vols got.

Tennessee (20-8, 9-6 SEC), losing for the fifth time in its last seven games, got 14 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists from Vescovi, who started after missing practice on Monday in Knoxville due to illness. Zeigler scored 14 points and had four assists. Nkamhoua had 13 points and four rebounds and Tobe Awaka had 10 points and seven rebounds.

The Vols were again without senior Josiah-Jordan James (ankle), who missed his fourth straight game, and freshman Julian Phillips (hip), who missed a third straight.

Texas A&M (21-7, 13-2) got 25 points from Taylor, who went 16-for-17 at the foul line. Julius Marble scored 19 points, going 7-for-11 from the stripe. Tennessee was called for 24 fouls in the game, including 14 in the second half.

The Aggies went 27-for-33 at the foul line while Tennessee was just 10-for-14.

Texas A&M led by nine after two Marble free throws with 12 minutes left, but Tennessee’s stagnant offense found life through 3-pointers twice from Vescovi and another from Nkamhoua. A Zeigler layup with 7:02 left had the Vols back within one, but Marble scored on the other side of a media timeout with 6:39 left.

Vescovi cut it to one on a layup with 4:56 left, but after an A&M timeout, the Aggies scored on a Taylor jumper in the paint.

It was a 61-58 lead for Texas A&M when Nkamhoua couldn’t hit the rim on a jumper with 3:23 left. He fouled on the other end, setting up the Aggies with more free throws and a four-point lead.

Zeigler cut it to one once again with a three with 2:18 left, but Marble got back to the line to get the lead back to three in the final minute.

Tennessee was called for six fouls in the opening three minutes of the second half and Texas A&M scored six straight to build a four-point lead with 17:36 left.

The lead was five after the Marble dunk three minutes later, after the Vols had committed their second shot-clock violation of the second half and third of the game.

Vols led for over 18 minutes, by as much as nine points in the first half

Tennessee started the game with nine straight points and led for 18 minutes, 28 seconds in the first half, but the Vols committed nine turnovers and Texas A&M stuck around thanks to 10 points at the free-throw line. 

Tobe Awaka scored just before the halftime horn to tie the game at 31-31, after the Aggies had take a 31-29 lead on an Andre Gordon 3-pointer with 46 seconds left before the break. Vescovi took a charge with six seconds left in the first half, setting up Awaka’s bucket on the other end. 

Jonas Aidoo scored six points and had five rebounds in the first eight minutes, but also had his second foul with more than seven minutes left in the half. 

Tennessee shot 44.4 percent from the field in the first half, going 12-for-27, but went just 3-for-15 from the 3-point line and was just 4-for-7 at the foul line. A&M shot 33.3 percent from both the field and the 3-point line, but was 10-for-12 at the foul line.

Taylor scored 15 points in the first half for the Aggies, going 8-for-8 at the line. Awaka, Nkamhoua and Aidoo had six points each in the first half for the Vols, who went 9-for-12 on shots inside the 3-point line.

Up Next: No. 11 Tennessee vs. South Carolina, Saturday, 6 p.m. ET, SEC Network 

The Vols are down to just three regular-season games remaining, starting with a home date with South Carolina on Saturday at Thompson-Boling Arena. It’s a 6 p.m. Eastern Time start on SEC Network.

Tennessee will host Arkansas on Tuesday, a 9 p.m. start in Knoxville with television designation still to be determined. The game will be on either ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU. The Vols end the regular season at Auburn on March 4, a 2 p.m. ET start on ESPN.

The SEC Tournament will be held March 8-13 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.