COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Tennessee men’s basketball coach Rick Barnes invited his former standout guard at Texas, T.J. Ford, to speak to his team before Thursday night’s Southeastern Conference opener at Texas A&M.
“He told us just play hard, and everything else will take care of itself,” Volunteers guard Detrick Mostella said. “And that there’s nothing like beating Texas A&M.”
The Vols found out firsthand in Reed Arena, where Lamonte Turner scored 14 points and Mostella added 13 in a 73-63 victory.
Tennessee (8-5) overwhelmed the Aggies (8-4) in points off turnovers, 19-6, while creating 16 Texas A&M turnovers to 10 of their own.
“This was a great win for us, and a great effort by a lot of different guys,” Barnes said. “Texas A&M does so many things that are hard to defend, so we had to be as scrappy as we could be defensively.”