Tramon Mark scored 26 points, 22 of them in the second half, and Makhi Mitchell added a season-high 22 points and 13 rebounds as Arkansas held on for a 78-71 win over Texas A&M on Tuesday in College Station, Texas.
The Razorbacks (13-13, 4-9 SEC) took the lead with 7:30 left in the first half, were ahead by four at halftime and didn’t trail the rest of the way.
They pushed their advantage to nine points with 9:34 to play and to 10 with 6:40 left. The Aggies closed to within 61-58 with 2:44 to play on a jumper in the lane by Wade Taylor IV, but Mark answered with a four-point play 25 seconds later. Arkansas never let Texas A&M get closer than five points the rest of the way.
Khalif Battle added 15 points for Arkansas, which snapped a two-game losing streak and swept the season series with the Aggies.
Jace Carter led Texas A&M with 14 points before fouling out with 4:11 to play. Henry Coleman III and Tyrece Radford added 12 points each and Taylor finished with 11 for the Aggies (15-11, 6-7 SEC), who dropped their third consecutive game. Andersson Garcia took 15 rebounds, Solomon Washington grabbed 10 and Taylor added nine assists for Texas A&M.
After a ragged start, the Razorbacks got a layup from Mitchell at the 11:25 mark of the first half to draw within 14-13. Texas A&M answered with a 3-pointer from Garcia and a jumper from Radford, the latter with 9:26 to play in the half, to push its lead back to six points.
Arkansas then reeled off 10 straight points to go in front for the first time, eventually extending its advantage to 23-19 when Layden Blocker nailed a 3-pointer with 6:55 remaining before halftime.
The Razorbacks pushed their lead to eight points on late in the half before a layup and a pair of free throws by Coleman allowed the Aggies to get within 35-31 at the break.
Mitchell led all scorers before halftime with 13 points while Battle added 10 for Arkansas. Coleman paced the Aggies with 11 points, 10 of which came in the final 5:23 when he was the only player to score for Texas A&M.
–Field Level Media
