National Basketball Association
Vanderbilt 86, Texas A&M 84
When: 7:00 PM ET, Wednesday, February 26, 2025
Where: Reed Arena, College Station, Texas
Officials:
# Don Daily, # Doug Sirmons, # K.B. Burdett Jr.
Attendance:
9287
By Field Level Media
Tyler Nickel scored 21 points on a career-high seven 3-pointers and Vanderbilt held on to upset No. 12 Texas A&M 86-84 in the Southeastern Conference nailbiter at College Station, Texas, on Wednesday.
MJ Collins Jr. added 16 points and Jason Edwards contributed 15 for Vanderbilt (19-9, 7-8 SEC), which had to survive foul trouble.
Pharrel Payne led Texas A&M with 23 points and Wade Taylor IV contributed 21 points and six assists. Zhuric Phelps chipped in 14 and CJ Wilcher had 12 for the Aggies (20-8, 9-6), who have lost three games in a row.
The Aggies saw their shooting struggles continue. They hit 37.1 percent from the field have reached 46 percent just once in their last seven games.
The 2 1/2-hour game featured 52 fouls, 28 on Commodores. Vanderbilt's two best big men, Devin McGlockton and Jaylen Carey, picked up their fourth fouls with 11:55 and 12:22 left in the game, respectively.
Edwards, Vanderbilt's leading scorer, then got his third with 9:24 left and was hit with a technical for arguing the call.
The Commodores then went with seldom-used sophomore JQ Roberts underneath. Roberts converted a dunk off a steal by Nickel with 5:40 left to put Vanderbilt up 65-57.
With the shot clock running down, Nickel canned a 3-pointer with 4:11 left to push the lead back to eight.
Two free throws by Collins pushed the margin to 10 with 3:33 to play.
Multiple late Vanderbilt turnovers kept the Aggies in it, but the Commodores knocked away a desperation heave toward the lane on an in-bounds play with 0.2 seconds left.
Both teams struggled offensively out of the gate in a slow-paced game. Vanderbilt found some early separation thanks to smart play and great ball movement. A 15-2 run helped it establish a 28-16 lead, with nine of those coming on 3-pointers by Nickel.
But Vanderbilt ended the half with 11 fouls (five players each having two) to the Aggies' five.
That helped the Aggies make a 10-0 run late in the half. Vanderbilt missed its last eight field-goal attempts before intermission and clung to a 34-32 lead.
Taylor's 12 points led the Aggies at the break.
--Field Level Media
Top Game Performances
Vanderbilt |
|
Texas A&M |
Tyler Nickel 21 |
Scoring |
Pharrel Payne 23 |
Tyler Tanner 4 |
Assists |
Wade Taylor IV 6 |
Devin McGlockton 10 |
Rebounds |
Andersson Garcia 11 |
Jason Edwards 8 |
Free Throws Made |
Wade Taylor IV 13 |
A.J. Hoggard 2 |
Steals |
Solomon Washington 3 |
Devin McGlockton 2 |
Blocks |
Solomon Washington 2 |
Team Stats Summary
Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
Vanderbilt
|
86 |
41.4 |
10-24 |
28-36 |
17 |
32 |
5 |
9 |
9 |
Texas A&M
|
84 |
37.1 |
7-22 |
31-39 |
15 |
35 |
3 |
7 |
12 |