No. 22 Texas A&M beats LSU 66-52 in SEC regular-season finale

By Canadian Press on March 8, 2025.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Wade Taylor IV scored 17 points as No. 22 Texas A&M beat LSU 66-52 on Saturday in the SEC regular-season finale for both teams.

The Aggies (22-9, 11-7 Southeastern) were coming off Tuesday’s home upset of No. 1 Auburn.

Texas A&M, the nation’s leading offensive rebounding team, went to work in the second half when it converted 10 offensive rebounds into 10 points. The Aggies finished with 14 offensive rebounds and 17 second-chance points.

Jordan Sears led LSU (14-17, 3-15) with 21 points.

Takeaways

Texas A&M: Aggies senior guard Taylor, who missed three of their first four SEC games healing from a knee injury, is his team’s undisputed key to a deep postseason run. Taylor, who has averaged 15.4 points in eight career games vs. LSU, scored 11 (including going 3 of 3 on 3-pointers) of A&M’s first 15 points on Saturday in the opening 5:11.

LSU: Tigers’ fifth-year senior transfer guard Sears can blow very hot or extremely cold.

Key moment

In a 15-3 A&M rally that broke a 34-34 tie and gave the Aggies a 49-37 lead in the first 10:30 of the second half, A&M grabbed seven offensive rebounds, leading to 11 second-chance points.

Key stat

The Aggies outrebounded the Tigers 28-13 in the second half to finish with a 42-27 advantage.

Up next

LSU is set as the No. 15 seed in the SEC Tournament in Nashville. The Tigers will play in Wednesday’s first round, vs. No. 10 seed Mississippi State. Texas A&M is projected as the No. 5 seed and will open play in Thursday’s second round vs. either Vanderbilt, Texas or Oklahoma. The Aggies are a projected No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament as one of 12 SEC teams predicted to receive invites.

___

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 all season. Sign up here. AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball

Ron Higgins, The Associated Press