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Texas A&M holds off Yale to advance to second round of NCAA Tournament
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Texas A&M drew a 4-seed in this year’s March Madness event and then found itself prepping for a Yale team that knocked off an SEC team on the 4-seed line last season. The star of that game, John Poulakidas, was back looking to do more damage.
And Poulakidas did his best. He scored 23 points and knocked down 4 triples. But Texas A&M had an answer every single time the Bulldogs tried to get themselves back into the game. And that answer usually involved Pharrel Payne.
Led by a season-high 25 points and 10 rebounds from Payne, the Aggies beat the Bulldogs 80-71 to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Payne was a consistent Bulldog bully throughout the evening. He scored 6 straight points midway through the first half to help A&M take a 10-point lead. He scored 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting in the first 20 minutes as A&M took an 11-point lead into the break.
In the second half, Payne scored 7 of the Aggies’ final 11 points to power them across the finish line.
A&M pushed its lead to 15 with 5:43 to play before Yale got it back to 9. The Aggies went up 15 again minutes later, but Yale again tried to make a run to get back into the game. Offensive rebounds and free throws from Payne killed the momentum.
The Aggies were unabashedly themselves. They shot poorly from 3 — 6-of-25, just 24% — but came up with 10 offensive rebounds and turned those second-chance opportunities into 15 points. They outscored Yale 48-32 in the paint and outrebounded it 37-29.
Texas A&M (23-10) will face either 5-seed Michigan or 12-seed UC San Diego on Saturday.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
