Florida Men’s Basketball Loses Heartbreaker at Texas A&M

All streaks are meant to be broken, but this one stings deep for the Gators.

Final

presented by @WellsFargo pic.twitter.com/LZXqJeDyOR

— Florida Gators Men’s Basketball (@GatorsMBK) February 3, 2024

The Florida men’s basketball team had its heart broken by Texas A&M on Saturday in College Station, Texas.

Down one with 19 seconds to go, Florida inbounded the ball, Walter Clayton Jr. attempted to get his second clutch shot after his buzzer-beater 3 in Lexington, Kentucky on Wednesday.

But his mid-range jumper was off the mark, however, the Gators would rebound the miss and pass it to Zyon Pullin. After leading the Gators with 18 points, Pullin put matters into his own hands by shooting a 3 with seconds remaining. The shot would brick off the nylon, with the ball loose on the ground until time expired.

https://twitter.com/aggiembk/status/1753924199880491225

The Aggies hold on to win 67-66. This marks the fifth loss in a row for Florida against Texas A&M, the last win coming on Feb. 12, 2020. The Gators move to 15-7 overall (5-4 in SEC) and are now 1-7 in Quad 1 games.

Aggies Get Bailed Out

Texas A&M (13-8, 4-4) escaped Reed Arena with a win by getting bailed out both figuratively and literally.

https://twitter.com/KBTXRusty/status/1753455962801733977

Tyrece “Boots” Radford scored 26 points, 38% of the Aggies’ points on Saturday afternoon. On Friday morning, Radford was arrested for fleeing local police and disregarding two stop signs while driving on Dec. 3, 2023. He was bailed out later that day on a $8,000 bond.

You would think that going to jail would provide some type of mental distraction, but Radford proved that notion wrong as he would score with ease against the Gators, going 10 of 16 from the field. He scored a pivotal basket with 35 seconds remaining in the game to give Texas A&M a game-winning one point lead.

Thus in a sense, Radford bailed out his team. However, he was not the only one to help out the Aggies down the stretch.

8 on 5?

After seeing how the second half unfolded, Gator fans are wondering if the three men in black and white stripes subbed in for the Aggies.

Despite both teams shooting almost 50% from the line in the second half, the sample sizes were not even close. Texas A&M had a whopping 20 free-throw attempts, to Florida’s two.

The Gators went on a 3:04 scoring drought to close the game, with a couple of those possessions questionable. For instance, right before a jump ball was called that gave the Aggies the ball due to possession arrow, Clayton clearly signaled a time out in front of two referees who appeared to not see it.

Florida’s 3 of 13 shooting from 3 and seven turnovers in the second half did not do them any favors.

Up Next

The Gators will next hit the court on Saturday against No. 16 Auburn.