In yet another pivotal game for their NCAA Tournament resume, Bucky McMillan and his Texas A&M squad went on the road and notched another Quad 1 win, defeating the Oklahoma Sooners 75-71 on Saturday night in Norman.
A&M survived an uncharacteristically poor night at the free throw line (shooting just 11 of 20), mostly by (also uncharacteristically) dominating the paint for the second straight game, outscoring the Sooners in the lane 32-12. While it certainly got tight late, with Oklahoma getting multiple
possessions where they could have tied the game in the closing minutes, the Aggies led for 95% of this game, and two clutch free throws by Rashaun Agee in the closing seconds sealed the deal.
Speaking of Agee, he once again paced A&M in scoring, pouring in 18 points to go along with seven rebounds, an assist and a steal. He was aided by Rylan Griffen’s 14 points, five rebounds, three steals, two blocks and an assist.
With the win, the Ags improve to 9-5 in SEC, sitting alone in 5th place in the SEC standings, with four games to play. They’ll face a still midweek next, traveling to Fayetteville to take on No. 20 Arkansas at 8 p.m. on Wednesday (which will air on ESPN 2). They’ll then wrap up their regular season slate with home games against Texas and Kentucky before a road game versus LSU. Winning one of those four (LSU being the most winnable game, at face value) will ensure the Aggies a winning conference record, and all but assure them a spot in the the NCAA Tournament in McMillan’s first season in Aggieland.
