The Texas A&M Aggies collapse late, falling to the UCF Knights in their season opener

The Texas A&M Aggies entered the 2024-25 men's basketball season with experience, continuity and talent, but it wasn't enough to earn a season-opening win on the road against the UCF Knights on Monday.

No. 13 Texas A&M (0-1) led by 11 with 6:24 to play in the second half, but went cold from the field and eventually collapsed as UCF rallied to claim a surprising 64-61 victory secured.

Aggies guard CJ Wilcher nearly hit a game-winning triple as time expired, but it bounced away. The fans then stormed the pitch in the Addition Financial Arena.

Texas A&M guard Wade Taylor IV held himself in check compared to his usual big scoring standards, but the veteran remained steady and led the Aggies' offense with 13 points and seven assists en route to finishing. However, it wasn't enough. Texas A&M forward Pharrel Payne had a team-high 15 points and a team-high six rebounds.

UCF guard Darius Johnson scored 24 points on 5 of 11 from 3-point range, while UTSA transfer guard Jordan Ivy-Curry had 16 points and five rebounds in his Knights debut.

Texas A&M took a 6-0 lead, which Taylor IV eventually extended to 11-2 after an early three-pointer. The Aggies eventually took a double-digit lead, 16-6, but UCF responded. Led by Ivy-Curry and Johnson, the Knights hit a barrage of three-pointers to take a 28-27 lead with 3:19 left in the half.

The teams entered halftime with a combined score of 29. The Aggies had eight turnovers in the first half. Payne was A&M's leading scorer with four points, while Taylor IV had just three points in the first 20 minutes.

At the start of the second half, Taylor IV began to find a rhythm while Johnson picked up where he left off for UCF. The two players each exchanged a pair of three-pointers in the first three minutes of the half.

Payne then scored six straight points for the Aggies, giving Texas A&M a 42-37 lead at the 16:01 mark. A quick 7-0 run, highlighted by a three-pointer from Wilcher, put the Aggies back in the lead a few minutes later at 10:49:39. A point drop by UCF allowed Texas A&M to extend its largest lead to 11, 54-43.

The Knights slowly took the lead with five straight free throws, but Taylor IV stole the momentum from Addition Financial Arena by hitting a deep three-pointer off the rebound to give the Aggies a 59-50 lead.

But the Knights responded by eventually going on a 12-2 run to take a 62-61 lead with less than a minute to play. The Aggies went more than four minutes without scoring a field goal.

Taylor IV attempted a possible three-pointer in the final minute but missed. Then he lost the ball on a drive out of bounds with 15.2 seconds left.

The Aggies had three attempts to tie the game in the final seconds, but all three attempts from beyond the arc missed.

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