Field Level Media
Jan 13, 2018
No. 24 Tennessee sent visiting Texas A&M Aggies to its fifth consecutive loss, 75-62 on Saturday night at Thompson-Boling Arena in career game No. 1,000 for Volunteers coach Rick Barnes.
Barnes' 647 wins rank eighth among active Division I coaches.
Texas A&M (11-6, 0-5 Southeastern Conference) was ranked as high as No. 5 two weeks ago. However, the Aggies, who got 16 points from Admon Gilder, 13 from DJ Hogg and 10 from Tonny Trocha-Morelos, have since gone into a slump.
Meanwhile, Tennessee, which is ranked in the Top 25 for the first time since December 2010, has won three games in a row. The Volunteers (12-4, 3-2) were led by Jordan Bowden (15 points), Kyle Alexander (14), Admiral Schofield (12) and Jordan Bone (10).
Tennessee sophomore forward Grant Williams, who was coming off a career-high 37-point game on Tuesday night at Vanderbilt, was relatively quiet with nine points and five rebounds. He made just 3 of 13 shots from the field and didn't come close to duplicating his Vanderbilt performance, which was the highest-scoring Vols game in 15 years.
Texas A&M, which fell to 2-2 against ranked teams this season, got positive news with the return of guard Duane Wilson, a graduate transfer from Marquette. He scored six points and handed out six assists after missing three straight games due to a knee injury.
Wilson is the fourth Texas A&M player to return since last Saturday. Hogg came back from suspension, and Gilder (injury) and Robert Williams (illness) were the others to return.
Tennessee, which was plus-eight in turnovers at the half, went into intermission with a 36-28 lead. The Vols scored the final five points of the first half, including a three-point play by Bowden and a Bone jumper with six seconds left.
The Vols never trailed in the second half, putting the Aggies away to improve to 7-2 at home.
--Field Level Media