No rationalization exists for No. 12 Texas A&M's 86-84 loss to Vanderbilt

There is no spin, no silver lining and no bright side for No. 12 Texas A&M’s 86-84 basketball loss to Vanderbilt on Wednesday night.

Falling at Mississippi State could be forgiven. Road wins in the hazardous Southeastern Conference are hard to come by. A loss to Tennessee is understandable. The Volunteers are among the best teams in the nation.

But no rationalization exists for No. 12 Texas A&M (20-8, 9-6) suffering a third consecutive loss. Vanderbilt (19-9, 7-8) is an inferior opponent who had been struggling with a 1-6 SEC record on the road.

Vanderbilt’s Tyler Nickel converted seven times from 3-point range to spur the Commodores, who converted 18 of 24 free throws in the final three-and-a-half minutes to hold off a frantic A&M rally.

The comeback bid came up short when Pharrel Payne could not get to a lobbed in-bounds pass from Wade Taylor IV with just a fraction of a second remaining.

Ten days ago, the Aggies were being trumpeted as perhaps a No. 2 seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament. Now, they’re in danger of falling to a No. 4 seed or lower.

That raises the question of whether the Aggies are merely in a slump or are they in a more perilous situation.

“(There’s) just not the consistency that we have to have in order to be as good as we can be,” A&M head coach Buzz Williams said. "You can pick any category. Offensively, defensively, on the glass, special teams, late game, how we start, how we come out of ATOs (automatic timeouts), dead balls.

“And the things from an intangible standpoint: Our communication. Our physicality. Our connective-ness. All of those things we have to execute at a higher rate, whether we play Vanderbilt at home, whether we play at Florida.”

Williams mentioned Florida because the Aggies travel to face the No. 3-ranked Gators on Saturday in hopes of ending their skid.

That will require a much better overall effort. The Aggies shot just 37.1 percent and committed a dozen turnovers. Meanwhile, Vanderbilt shot 50 percent in the second half and hit 10 of 24 times from 3-point range overall.

That was the second straight game in which the Aggies were victimized at the arc. Tennessee hit 13 of 27 times from 3-point range in a 77-69 win over the Aggies last Saturday.

Payne had 23 points, and Taylor had 21, but they did not get enough help until the final minutes when A&M was hoping for a miraculous rally.

Early on, Vanderbilt, which badly needed the Quadrant 1 win to enhance its NCAA Tournament resume, threatened to take control.

Led by Nickel, who hit four treys in the first half, the Commodores went on a 15-2 run to take a 28-16 lead.

But after a Williams timeout, the Aggies — boosted by a couple of CJ Wilcher 3-pointers — trimmed the deficit to 34-32 at halftime.

Will Huffman, TexAgs

Pharrel Payne scored a game-high 23 points and hauled in six rebounds.

A&M eventually held a 44-42 lead when Payne converted a 3-point play with 17:22 showing.

Vandy responded but held just a 56-54 lead after Taylor hit four consecutive free throws with 9:24 to play.

The Commodores’ leading scorer Jason Edwards fouled Taylor and then was assessed his fourth foul on a technical for disputing the call.

He and forwards Devin McGlockton and Jaylen Carey spent the next five minutes on the bench in foul trouble.

Alas, A&M could not capitalize. Instead, Vanderbilt increased its lead to 68-60 after Nickel hit a 3-pointer with 4:11 to play.

“It was four bench players and Tyler Nickel,” Vanderbilt head coach Mark Byington said of the Commodores’ lineup in that stretch. “The four guys we had in are actually really good on defense. We were getting stops. We were getting rebounds. We were making things tough for them.”

Vanderbilt then converted 18 of 24 free throws over the final 3:33 to hold off the Aggies.

Wilcher and Zhuric Phelps hit back-to-back 3-pointers in the final 13 seconds to pull A&M within 86-84.

The Commodores then lost the basketball out of bounds on the sideline. But only 0.2 seconds remained, which meant A&M could only hope to tip-in and long in-bounds pass.

Payne never had a chance to get to the lob.