Pharrel Payne, Texas A&M fight off Yale's upset bid

DENVER -- Pharrel Payne had a career-high 25 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, Wade Taylor IV had 16 points, and No. 4 seed Texas A&M beat No. 13 seed Yale 80-71 in the first round of the South Region on Thursday night.

Jace Carter added 10 points for the Aggies (23-10), who will face the winner of UC San Diego-Michigan in the second round on Saturday night.

John Poulakidas scored 23 points, Nick Townsend had 15, Isaac Celiscar finished with 12 points and Casey Simmons contributed 11 points for the Bulldogs.

Yale (22-8) could not duplicate its 2024 first-round upset of a fourth-seeded SEC team. The Bulldogs beat Auburn, 78-76, in last year's tournament.

Yale got some momentum behind Poulakidas early in the second half. The Bulldog trailed 51-40 when Poulakidas hit a jumper to cut the lead to single digits. Then, Townsend stole Manny Obaseki's pass. Townsend went up for a layup, but Obaseki recovered to block it. Solomon Washington threw the loose ball out of bounds off Mbeng.

The Aggies went ahead by 12 but Riley Fox made a pair of 3-pointers and Towsend a short hook to pull Yale within 58-52 with 8:36 remaining.

Taylor missed a jumper out of a timeout, giving the Bulldogs a chance to cut deeper into the deficit, but Townsend missed a baseline jumper. Jace Carter hit a 3-pointer and a putback layup, Payne tipped in a miss and Taylor hit two free throws to make it 67-52, and Texas A&M closed it out.

The Aggies used a 13-2 run early in the game to take control. Yale made one field goal in nearly six minutes, which allowed Texas A&M to take a double-digit lead.

The Bulldogs trimmed the deficit to five on two free throws by Poulakidas with 3:20 left in the first but the Aggies closed strong, with Taylor's late 3-pointer putting them ahead 40-29 at the break.

--Michael Kelly, Field Level Media