Tyrece Radford scored a career-high 31 points on 8-of-11 shooting to lead Texas A&M past host DePaul 82-66 on Friday afternoon in Chicago.
Radford was 4 for 5 from the 3-point arc and 11 for 13 from the foul line while adding five rebounds. Wade Taylor IV had 21 points, six steals (all in the first half) and five assists off the bench for the Aggies (4-2).
Eral Penn led DePaul (3-3) with 21 points and 10 rebounds, but he couldn’t keep the Blue Demons from losing their third straight game. Javan Johnson and Ahamad Bynum scored 10 points apiece before both fouled out with several minutes to play.
The Aggies had a 30-13 advantage over the Blue Demons in bench points.
Texas A&M never trailed and needed less than 11 minutes to build its first double-digit lead. Radford, who hit two 3-pointers in the game’s first 3:09, knocked down another in transition to make it 24-14 Aggies with 9:36 before halftime.
Umoja Gibson (13 points) responded with a triple for DePaul just 32 seconds later. When Penn knocked down a 3-pointer, it brought the Blue Demons within 30-21 with 5:34 to go.
Texas A&M used a late 6-0 spurt centered on Dexter Dennis’ dunk to grow its lead to as many as 13 points, but Penn’s layup in the final minute made it 38-27 Aggies at the break.
Radford had 15 points by halftime for Texas A&M, while Penn matched that for DePaul.
DePaul trailed by double figures for most of the second half. Johnson hit 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to trim the deficit to 49-40.
But Taylor responded with a personal 6-0 run, and the game was largely out of reach from there. A series of free throws by Radford gave the Aggies their largest lead at 70-50 with 5:36 to play.
Radford’s previous career high was 26 points, when he was a freshman at Virginia Tech in the 2019-20 season.
–Field Level Media