The No. 14 UK men’s basketball team was unable to pull out a victory on the road against Texas A&M. The back-and-forth game turned into an overtime thriller quickly as the Aggies would win on an offensive put-back 79-77. 

MVP: Tyler Ulis

There is just something about being on a big stage that brings the best out of sophomore Tyler Ulis. The guard out of Chicago came to play against Texas A&M, who just dropped out of the AP rankings this week, as he put up an impressive 22 points and 11 assists.

Ulis made as many plays as he could for his team including a clutch block and floater down the lane, but even his great play wasn’t enough to carry out a victory.

Game Defining Moment:

At under a minute left with UK down two, the team came out of a timeout with the ball and a chance to tie the game. Sophomore Tyler Ulis came off a screen and found Marcus Lee for the alley-oop coming off a back screen.

Texas A&M was unable to score on its next possession and after getting the rebound Lee was fouled and sent to the free-throw line. Lee missed the frontend of a one-and-one and that gave the Aggies another chance to take the lead. The Cats defense came up with another big stop to force overtime.

Trending Up: Isaac Humphries

The freshman big man seemed to be the only player wearing blue that felt the need to fight inside to secure a rebound. Humphries pulled down a career-high twelve rebounds to lead the team and made key shots down the stretch.

The one blemish on the day for the center would have to be the technical foul he drew in overtime. Make no mistake though, without the play of Humphries its hard to imagine UK forcing the game into overtime to begin with.

Trending Down: Shot Selection

Shooting from outside has been a cringe-worthy aspect of the game for freshman Isaiah Briscoe. Despite making his first three since December in the game against the Aggies, three-point attempts and long twos are not the shots that UK needs out of Briscoe.

He went 5-for-12 from the field and any of of those shots coming from outside would have been better going to one of his teammates.

 Stat of the Game: 20 Offensive Rebounds for the Aggies

The story of the game was Texas A&M’s ability to create second chances by attacking the glass. The Aggies were able to pull down 20 offensive rebounds to help them beat UK on the glass 41-36.

The second chances on offense were what helped the Aggies stay stay within one point going into the half despite UK shooting 53.8 percent from the field to their 33.3 percent. Then in overtime, it was an offensive rebound and put-back to beat the buzzer that won Texas A&M the game.