COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP)– Egor Koulechov scored 19 points and Keith Stone added 18 as Florida built a big lead early and cruised to an 83-66 victory over No. 11 Texas A&M on Tuesday night.
The short-handed Aggies, who were playing without three starters, dropped their second straight game after starting the season 11-1 and rising to No. 5 in the poll. This was A&M’s second straight lopsided loss after a 79-57 defeat at Alabama on Saturday.
The Gators (10-4, 2-0 Southeastern Conference) made 17 3-pointers, led by five from Koulechov and four from Stone to win their fourth straight game.
Texas A&M (11-3, 0-2) was led by Jay Jay Chandler‘s 17 points on a night the team was missing Admon Gilder, who missed his fourth straight game with a knee injury, and Duane Wilson who also sat out with a knee injury. Leading scorer D.J. Hogg, who is averaging 14.6 points a game, served the last game of a three-game suspension for an undisclosed team rules violation.
The Gators led by 16 at halftime thanks to a hot-shooting first half where they made 10 of 16 3-pointers and had extended the lead to 55-37 with about 15 minutes left.
The Aggies scored the next eight points with 3-pointers from Chris Collins and Tonny Trocha-Morelos to get within 10. But Florida used a 10-0 spurt, with the first eight points from Koulechov, to make it 65-45 with about 11 minutes left and the Aggies didn’t threaten again.
The Aggies led by one early before Florida used a 22-6 run, powered by four 3-pointers, to take a 30-15 lead with about 8 1/2 minutes left in the first half.
Texas A&M got going after that and outscored the Gators 12-6 over the next 4 minutes to get within 36-27.
Florida scored the next eight points, with 3s from Chris Chiozza and Koulechov, to push the lead to 44-27 and the Gators led 46-30 at halftime.
POSTGAME NOTES
RECORDS / SERIES NOTES
- Texas A&M dropped its second consecutive contest Tuesday night, falling to Florida 83-66 at Reed Arena … A&M’s record this season now stands at 11-3 with an 0-2 mark in SEC play.
- The loss snapped a seven-game home winning streak for the Aggies.
- Florida leads the all-time series between the schools 7-4.
TEAM NOTES
- Texas A&M, which entered the game allowing opponents to shoot just 27 percent from beyond the 3-point line, allowed a season-high 17 3-point baskets to the Gators (Buffalo also made 17 3-pointers on 12/21) … UF made 17-of-28 shots form long distance.
- Florida’s 51.6 field goal percentage and 60.7 3-point field goal percentage were both season-highs for an Aggie opponent.
- The Gators did not make a free throw in the contest, going 0-for-1 to become the first Aggie opponent since Texas Tech did not convert from the charity stripe on Feb. 14, 2012.
- Florida took a 46-30 lead into the intermission after a hot shooting first half that saw the Gators make 10-of-16 3-point attempts.
- Texas A&M used the starting lineup combination of JJ Caldwell, Jay Jay Chandler, Savion Flagg, Robert Williams and Tyler Davis for the first time this season (0-1).
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
- Sophomore Robert Williams posted his third double-double of the season and 14th of his career with a 12-point and 11-rebound outing … the Oil City, La., native registered four blocks to extend his program-record block streak.
- Freshman Jay Jay Chandler led the Aggies in scoring with a career-high 17 points … Chandler hit 7-of-11 from the floor including 3-for-4 from behind the arc.
- RS Freshman JJ Caldwell registered a career high nine points while leading the Aggies with seven assists during his second career start.
- Aggie head coach Billy Kennedy fell to 126-88 during his seven-year tenure at Texas A&M and 337-267 in 20 seasons as a head coach.
UP NEXT
- The Aggies return to the hardwood inside Reed Arena to host LSU on Saturday … Tip-off is slated for 1:15 p.m. with television coverage on SEC Network.
Texas A&M head coach Billy Kennedy and guard Jay Jay Chandler
FLORIDA HEAD COACH MIKE WHITE
On Florida’s three-point shooting…
“Sometimes when you make a few early it snowballs for you. It certainly has happened to this year’s Gator team. We’ve got a few very good shooters. Sometimes when you get off to a good start you can carry that momentum for 40 minutes. I don’t think we took a selfish shot all night. I hope that moving forward we continue to see progress in that area. This just happened to be one of those nights that I thought the ball movement early for the most part led to more and more ball movement moving forward. It was the highest I’ve seen our confidence offensively in a while. It was nice to see our shots falling. It was nice to see the ball falling like it did.”
On Texas A&M…
“They are obviously a very difficult team to play against with their incredible length and size. We packed it in more so than we normally do with a lack of proven shooters. I told our guys before the game that their freshmen were going to have a renewed level of confidence knowing that they are going to get extended minutes. They are very talented and highly-rated guys coming out of high school. I thought Jay Jay Chandler really stepped up and played his butt off. Savion Flagg hit a couple threes. They made us pay for our game plan a few of times with us daring them to shoot it. Those guys will continue to get better. We knew the emphasis would be to pound it inside. A&M is really good obviously when they are at full strength. They are probably as good as anybody in the country.”
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics