Aggies move on to 2nd Round on Saturday
Upset be darned. Texas A&M seized control of this game early and never looked back, out-physical-ing and out-athlete-ing Yale throughout en route to a 80-71 win in their NCAA Tournament First Round game Thursday night in Denver.
MARCHING ON ➡️ #GigEm | @AzunaFresh pic.twitter.com/MBlOCTfoQc
— Texas A&M Basketball (@aggiembk) March 21, 2025
The Ags were paced by center Pharrell Payne, who abused an undersized Yale squad to the tune of 25 points and 10 rebounds. A&M also got the usual production from Wade Taylor (16 points) and a pleasantly surprising 10-point outburst from Jace Carter, including two three-pointers.
Yale’s only lead was a 5-4 lead in the early minutes of the game, and they got no closer than six in the second half. A&M looked like a team deserving of their 4 seed, handling an inferior opponent and moving on to the round of 32 despite being one of the most popular upset picks nationally.
Texas A&M was the most picked Top 4 seed to get upset in the first round…
They proved the doubters wrong pic.twitter.com/Nu1NBjR2wW
— Yahoo Fantasy Sports (@YahooFantasy) March 21, 2025
A&M advances to the second round for the second straight season and the 10th time in the 11 trips to the Big Dance this century. Now they’ll attempt to make their fourth Sweet 16 in that span. They will play their second round game on Saturday, March 22, against the winner of Michigan and UC-San Diego (time tbd).