Scotty Pippen Jr. scored 24 points, and Liam Robbins hit for seven of his 14 points in the final four minutes as Vanderbilt outlasted Texas A&M for a 72-67 win Saturday evening in Southeastern Conference play in Nashville.
The Commodores (14-2, 6-8) led by a point at halftime but trailed 61-60 after a 3-pointer by Texas A&M’s Quenton Jackson with 4:30 to play. Two free throws and then a layup by Robbins allowed Vanderbilt a three-point advantage with 3:06 left; the Aggies answered with baskets from Aaron Cash and Tyrece Radford to move back in front.
A pair of free throws by Pippen Jr. was followed up by a putback basket by Robbins with 1:13 remaining to send the Commodores back to a three-point lead.
Hassan Diarra’s bucket brought the Aggies back to within a point. But Jordan Wright made a layup and then Pippen Jr.’s free throw with 9 seconds to play cemented the win for Vanderbilt.
Wright added 15 points for the Commodores, who have won four straight games at home.
Jackson had 23 points, all but two of those in the second half, to pace the Aggies (16-11, 5-9).
Diarra hit for 13 and Radford scored 12 for Texas A&M, which has dropped nine of its past 10 games.
The first half had three ties and two lead changes and neither team led by more than seven points, a mark that the Commodores attained twice in the game’s first 10 minutes. Texas A&M rallied to take a brief 25-24 lead on a jumper by Diarra with 2:21 to play in the half.
Vanderbilt rallied with two buckets by Pippen Jr. on the way to a 28-27 advantage at the break. Pippen Jr. led all scorers in the first half with nine points as the Commodores outshot Texas A&M 40.7 percent to 32.3 percent over the first 20 minutes.
Twelve players logged at least six minutes each for the Aggies in the first half and eight of them scored, led by Diarra’s and Andre Gordon’s five points each. Texas A&M stayed close by turning 12 Vanderbilt turnovers into 18 points and by getting 19 points from its non-starters in the half.
The Aggies hit seven straight shots from the over four-minute stretch of the second half to help turn a four-point deficit into a 54-50 lead with 9:12 to play. Jackson had 15 points during that surge.
–Field Level Media
