Aggies struggle to contain red-hot Kentucky in 69-60 loss

Texas A&M has been hot in a recent surge. But on Tuesday night Kentucky sophomore guard Immanuel Quickley was much hotter.

He was torrid. He was scalding. He was…

“Super hot. Super hot fire,” Kentucky forward EJ Montgomery said. If you touch him you’re going to get burned.”

Quickley burned the Aggies for 30 points to spur No. 8 Kentucky (23-5, 13-2) to a 69-60 Southeastern Conference basketball victory that ended A&M’s three-game winning streak.

The Aggies (14-13, 8-7) want to force opponents to take 3-point shots. Mathematically, it’s a sound strategy. Longer shots have lower percentages.

Quickley had his own math, though. He converted 8 of 12 shots from behind the arc to convert a gaudy 66 percent.

“Our premise defensively is to do everything we can to keep the ball out of the paint,” A&M coach Buzz Williams said. “We can't afford to foul. We can’t afford to get in rotation. We’ve got to work incredibly hard to not get obliterated on the defensive glass.”

“Relative to those characteristics we want to force the team to shoot more 3’s than normal.”

Of course, Kentucky coach John Calipari knew that and had the Wildcats prepared.

Rey Romo, TexAgs

Savion Flagg played well in the loss, shooting 55.6% on FG’s and scoring 17. 

“Right after our last game (a 65-59 victory over Florida) that was the first thing we worked on,” Quickley said. “We knew they left corners (open). We watched a lot of film. I put that in my workouts. Just being ready was a credit to our scouting report.”

Yet, despite Kentucky hitting 11 treys, shooting 52.2 percent overall and also getting 13 points from guard Tyrese Maxey and 11 from guard Ashton Hagans, the outcome was very much in doubt with less than four minutes remaining.

Jay Jay Chandler drained a 3-pointer to bring A&M within 57-50 and bring the Reed Arena crowd of 8,190 to its feet with 3:52 to go.

Then, coming out of a media time out, the Aggies forced Kentucky into a shot clock violation. Immediately afterward, Wendell Mitchell found room to drive from the right side, but his attempted dunk caromed off the iron.

Savion Flagg tracked down the rebound and passed back to Mitchell, who got a good look at a 3-pointer. The shot, though, rolled off the rim.

Instead of cutting into the Wildcats’ lead A&M fell behind 59-50 on Quickley’s second-chance 15-foot jumper that all but clinched the Kentucky victory.

The Aggies played about as well as they could’ve hoped against the Wildcats, who extended their winning streak to seven.

Mitchell scored 18 points to lead A&M. Flagg added 17 and Josh Nebo 14.

The Aggies played as well as they might have hoped. They hit 10 goals from 3-point range — with Mitchell and Flagg combining for nine of those.

A&M committed only 13 turnovers, limited Kentucky to six offensive rebounds and managed to take more shots (48) than the Wildcats (46). The Aggies shot a respectable 41.7 percent from the field, 45.5 percent from 3-point range and hit 10 of 14 free throws. But Nebo picked up three offensive fouls — two on moves to the basket in which he would’ve scored and appeared he might have drawn a foul. Rather than shoot and-one free throws he had to be replaced by Jonathan Aku, who struggled in seven minutes of play.

Mitchell and Emanuel Miller also had their minutes reduced because of foul trouble in the first half.

“Nebo picked up his third (foul) on an offensive foul, so we’re playing Aku offense for defense minutes trying to buy a few more minutes,” Williams said. “We’re stressed out enough in many regards. It’s hard for us to absorb a guy in foul trouble. Really hard for us to absorb two guys in foul trouble.”

Still, the fact remains that A&M followed up a three-game winning streak by pushing a Top Ten opponent. A competitive loss might enhance the Aggies’ hopes of getting into a postseason tournament.

Calipari seemed to think so.

“My staff said to me (the Aggies) are one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in the country,” Calipari said. “Until the last five games. They made 10 threes. You’ve got a chance. And they’re scrambling on defense. It’s just whether or not they believe. They’ve got enough guys. Their big guy (Nebo) is a monster. How many times did he dunk on us?”

“But let me say this: I’m worried about my team.”