No. 13 Texas A&M and unranked but dangerous Texas renew their Lone Star State rivalry when they square off on Saturday afternoon in a key Southeastern Conference contest in Austin, Texas.
The teams kicked off their SEC slates on Jan. 4 in College Station, with the Aggies blowing open a close game in the second half on the way to an 80-60 win.
Since that win over the Longhorns, Texas A&M (15-4, 4-2 SEC) has won three of its last five outings, including a rousing 63-62 victory at No. 16 Ole Miss on Wednesday.
The Aggies trailed by 11 points in the second half and were down 60-52 with two minutes to play. Manny Obaseki canned a 3-pointer with 12.5 seconds remaining to give A&M its first lead of the game.
Zhuric Phelps scored 14 points to lead the Aggies while Obaseki (12 points) and Pharrel Payne (10) were keys to the second-half rally, scoring all 22 of their combined points in the final 20 minutes.
“It would be foolish of me to take any credit for any of this,” Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams said. “Nearly every single possible thing analytically had to go right for us to even have a chance. Our guys play with great belief in one another. And in 2025 sometimes that at least gives you a chance when things never go your way.”
Texas A&M won despite shooting just 38.7 percent from the field, taking only nine free throws and committing a season-high 20 turnovers. The Aggies dominated the glass, outrebounding Ole Miss 48-31, with 14 of those boards on the offensive end.
“We all want to have success in March, but it seems like an eternity away relative to what is required to go through this league,” Williams explained.
Texas presents a tough challenge for the Aggies, especially after the Longhorns (13-6, 2-4) have seemingly turned the corner after a ragged start in their first year in the rugged SEC.
They finished strong in a 61-53 home win over No. 22 Missouri on Tuesday, getting 14 points and 12 rebounds from Arthur Kaluma and 12 points from freshman Tre Johnson.
“We stayed poised the whole game and without panicking we were able to win the game,” Longhorns center Kadin Shedrick said.
Texas shot just 34.0 percent from the floor but outrebounded the Tigers 39-31 and compiled a 20-4 edge in second-chance points while bouncing back from an 84-60 loss at No. 5 Florida last Saturday. The win over Missouri was the first against a ranked team this season for the Longhorns.
Kaluma praised his squad’s grit. “I thought we grew up as a team against Missouri,” he said.
Saturday’s game will be the sixth ranked opponent for Texas in a stretch of seven games.
“The guys we’ve been playing have been doing a pretty good job,” Longhorns coach Rodney Terry said of his team. “We got into conference play, we had to learn to really try to put our helmets on a little bit. It’s a physical league with guys crashing.”
–Field Level Media
