Texas A&M sneaks past Vandy to extend hot SEC start

Henry Coleman III scored 18 points and Wade Taylor IV and Tyrece Radford added 14 each as Texas A&M survived Vanderbilt's upset bid for a 72-66 victory on Saturday in College Station, Texas.

The Aggies (15-6, 7-1 Southeastern Conference) held the Commodores (10-11, 3-5) scored the final six points over the last 1:03, giving Texas A&M its best start in SEC play since the 2015-16 team also opened with a 7-1 record. Texas A&M is tied for second with No. 4 Tennessee in the league, one game behind No. 2 Alabama.

Junior Myles Stute came off the bench for the first time this season to lead the Commodores with a career-high 22 points and a career-high-tying seven 3-pointers. Jordan Wright added 15 points and Trey Thomas 13 for Vanderbilt.

Down 34-30 at halftime, the Aggies needed less than four minutes to catch up with the visitors at 39-39 on the strength of an 8-0 run.

The game was tied at 47-47 before the Aggies took outscored the Commodores 17-4 over a four-minute stretch.

The Commodores closed the gap to 65-64 on a 13-1 run spurred by Wright's seven points and 3-pointers by Stute and Trey Thomas. Vanderbilt took a 66-65 lead on Tyrin Lawrence's free throws with 2:59 remaining.

Vanderbilt never scored again. A Radford free throw tied the game with 2:16 left before Andersson Garcia's layup with 1:03 to go put Texas A&M up 68-66. Taylor and Coleman combined to make 3 of 4 free throws in the last minute.

In the first half, the Commodores shot 6-for-12 from behind the arc while the Aggies were 3-for-13 from 3-point range.

Stute ignited most of the success, going 4-for-5 on 3-point attempts on his way to 13 points in the period. The Commodores held a 29-20 lead with 5:39 left in the half but went only 2-for-9 from the field the rest of the period.

The Aggies struggled in the closing minutes of the period as well, going only 4-for-13 over the final 7:02, but Radford's corner 3-pointer at the buzzer cut Texas A&M's deficit to four points.