Wade Taylor IV, Texas A&M knock off No. 9 Kentucky

Field Level Media|published: Fri 15th March, 21:32 2024

Mar 15, 2024; Nashville, TN, USA; Texas A&M Aggies guard Wade Taylor IV (4) and Kentucky Wildcats guard Adou Thiero (3) fight for the loose ball during the first half at Bridgestone Arena. credits: Steve Roberts-USA TODAY Sports

Wade Taylor IV poured in 32 points as Texas A&M upset No. 9 Kentucky 97-87 on Friday night in the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference tournament in Nashville, Tenn.

Taylor canned six 3-pointers for the seventh-seeded Aggies (20-13), who are one step closer to making the SEC tournament final for the third straight season. They lost to Alabama last year after falling to Tennessee in 2022.

The Aggies will face either Alabama or Florida in the semifinals Saturday.

Tyrece Radford supplied 23 points, seven rebounds and six assists for Texas A&M. Manny Obaseki finished with 17 points and three steals.

It looked like the Aggies were going to coast to the finish when Radford converted a jumper in the lane to push Texas A&M's lead to 80-64 with 6:21 left in the game.

But Rob Dillingham put the second-seeded Wildcats (23-9) on his back, igniting a 14-4 outburst with eight straight Kentucky points to make it 84-78 with 3:46 to go.

Radford stopped the bleeding with a fastbreak layup before Obaseki's short jumper with 2:10 left gave the Aggies an 88-78 cushion, and the Wildcats never got closer than eight the rest of the way.

Dillingham paced Kentucky with 27 points, four boards and seven assists. Reed Sheppard netted 14 points, and Antonio Reeves had 13.

Although the Wildcats outshot Texas A&M 50 percent to 46.4 percent from the floor, they still failed to reach their first SEC tournament title game since 2018.

Taylor came roaring out of the gate, scoring eight points in the first 3:02 of the game to lift Texas A&M to an 11-4 lead.

The Wildcats soon found their footing, though, using a 9-1 burst to go up 16-15 with 13:15 left in the first half.

Solomon Washington answered with a 3-pointer, opening a stretch in which the Aggies scored 22 of the game's next 33 points to grab a 37-27 advantage with 6:45 remaining. Taylor accounted for seven points during the rally.

Kentucky quickly whittled its deficit down to three, but Texas A&M ended up taking a 48-42 edge into the break.

Adou Thiero sandwiched two pairs of free throws around a Radford layup to help the Wildcats pull within 52-49 early in the second half, before the Aggies started to gradually pull away.

—Field Level Media