Texas A&M's perfect SEC record survives late scare from Florida, 54-52

Resurgent Texas A&M celebrated another big Southeastern Conference basketball victory on Wednesday night.

The Aggies just celebrated a little too soon.

In a span of seven seconds, Texas A&M (13-5, 5-0) went from euphoric to distressed before holding on for a 54-52 victory over Florida (10-8, 3-3) in front of a raucous crowd of 12,126 at Reed Arena.

Forty minutes of demolition derby basketball came down to eight stressful seconds. In that span, the Aggies appeared to clinch a victory and then almost give it away.

Tyrece Radford scored a breakaway dunk to give the Aggies a 54-49 lead and start a celebration with just eight seconds showing.

But Florida’s Myreon Jones swished about a 25-foot 3-pointer with four seconds left. A turnover on A&M’s ensuing inbound pass gave Florida a last chance to win or force overtime.

Jamie Maury, TexAgs

Sweeping the season series against Florida, A&M has now won four straight against the Gators since last season.

However, Dexter Dennis harassed Jones into an errant 3-point attempt which fell way short of its target.

“I’m not going to lie, when (Radford) dunked it, I was like, ‘OK, one more stop, and it’s pretty much over,” Dennis said.

Some of Dennis’ teammates didn’t think that one more stop was necessary.

“You can see me on the film. I’m screaming and hyped. I’m looking at the ball,” forward Julius Marble said, who led the Aggies with 19 points. “Then I realized, ‘Oh, there’s like six or seven seconds left. I should get back on defense.’ I was part of the reason they got a good shot.”

Jones’ three-pointer cut A&M’s lead to two. Still, the Aggies needed only to inbound the ball to seal the win.

But Andersson Garcia mishandled the inbound pass. That gave Florida one last chance.

“I put Andy in a bad spot,” A&M coach Buzz Williams said. “Four (point guard Wade Taylor IV) wasn’t in the game. We need Four in a full-court situation. I knew I had two timeouts. I should have called a timeout. That was an unneeded turnover caused by poor coaching.”

The Gators could not get the ball inside to 6-foot-11 Colin Castleton or to the corner for a 3-point shot. Instead, they passed to Jones, who had to rush a shot about 20 feet from the basket while being blanketed by Dennis.

“We tried to get Colin over the top,” Florida coach Todd Golden said. “Thought they did a good job switching it. They did everything they could to keep them between us and the basket.

“We got it into MJ (Jones). He did a good job trying to draw the foul. But I thought it was a good no-call.”

Dennis had to apply pressure while being careful not to commit a foul, which would have given Jones three free throws.

“In a situation like that, you’ve got to be really, really fundamental and sound because any little reach or any little pump fake you go for, he could possibly get three (foul) shots if I jump,” Dennis said. “Mainly, I was just thinking about what would I have done in that situation. Just trying to draw a foul, probably get three shots. Just trying to get something good.”

The Aggies got a lot of good from Dennis, who had a double-double with 11 points and 16 rebounds. He played a key role in the Aggies holding Florida to just 7.7 percent shooting (2-of-26) in the first half.

The first-half defensive dominance, which is becoming a common occurrence, enabled the Aggies to take a 23-12 lead at halftime.

Florida’s 12 points were the fewest A&M has allowed an SEC opponent since joining the league in 2012.

But as was the case in a 66-63 A&M victory over Florida in Gainesville two weeks ago, the Gators steadily chipped away at the margin in the second half.

The Gators never took the lead but pulled within 50-49 on Riley Kugel's 3-pointer with 29.6 seconds left.

Six seconds later, Taylor answered with a pair of clutch free throws.

Florida almost cut the margin back to a single point. Castleton was looking to score a putback after an offensive rebound.

But Garcia came from behind for the block. He then rebounded and passed to Radford, who raced down the court all alone for the dunk that allowed A&M to celebrate another SEC win, albeit a little too soon.