Texas A&M's Savion Flagg gets control of a high pass to Tennessee's Jordan Bowden at midcourt during Saturday night's SEC matchup in College Station, Texas.
Tennessee forward Grant Williams shoots over Texas A&M guard Brandon Mahan (13) and forward Josh Nebo during the first half of Saturday night's game.
Texas A&M men's basketball coach Billy Kennedy said his team needed to do "everything right" to beat visiting Tennessee playing at its best Saturday night, and that didn't happen for the Aggies as they fell to 1-7 in SEC play.COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The top-ranked Tennessee men's basketball team didn't take much time to celebrate breaking a 100-year-old record Saturday night.
The Volunteers have much bigger goals this season.
Grant Williams scored 22 points as Tennessee beat Texas A&M 93-76, winning for the 16th straight game to set a program record.
"We have a long way to go," Williams said. "We have a long season ahead of us. It's nice to set that record, but we want more. We can't ever settle, because if we settle or we start thinking that's all we want, we're going to drop to teams left and right."
The Vols (20-1, 8-0 Southeastern Conference) surpassed the 15-game streak they had from February 1915 to January 1917 and are off to their best start in conference play since also going 8-0 in the 1981-82 season.
Tennessee led by 19 points during the first half, but the Aggies cut the lead to 46-39 by halftime.
The Vols were clinging to a two-point lead midway through the second half before a 5-0 run that was capped by a 3-pointer from Jordan Bowden made it 70-63. Those five points were the start of a 10-3 spurt, with a 3 from Lamonte Turner extending the lead to 75-66 with 8 1/2 minutes to go. Williams added a dunk in that stretch and had a big defensive play with a block on T.J. Starks.
Savion Flagg and Wendell Mitchell made 3-pointers for Texas A&M (8-12, 1-7) to power a 6-3 run after that, but Tennessee scored the next seven points to stretch its lead to 85-72 with some 6 1/2 minutes remaining.
Mitchell finished with 18 points for Texas A&M, which lost for the fifth time in its past six games.
"When they play that well, you've got to do everything right," Texas A&M coach Billy Kennedy said, "and we didn't do everything right."
Tennessee point guard Jordan Bone went 7-for-7 from the field and finished with 18 points and 10 assists, and Turner had 19 points and seven assists. Williams, the SEC's leading scorer this season, had 10 rebounds and four assists.
Bowden scored 16 points in his return after missing the team's last game with a knee injury.
Vols coach Rick Barnes raved about the leadership of Bone and said he spoke to the team in the huddle during timeouts late in the second half.
"I really didn't have to say a word," Barnes said. "Jordan Bone, everything I wanted to say, he was saying."
This is the earliest the Vols have reached 20 wins since the 2007-08 season, when a Bruce Pearl-coached squad achieved the mark on Feb. 5 and went on to win the SEC regular-season title.
Barnes was asked after Saturday's win if this team is the best he has ever had. The veteran coach, who had stops at George Mason, Providence, Clemson and Texas before taking over at Tennessee in 2015, took a second to ponder the question.
Barnes had a streak of 17 straight NCAA tournament appearances from 1996 at Clemson through 2012 at Texas, with the highlight coming when he led Texas to the Final Four in 2003. He also coached current NBA star Kevin Durant in his one season with the Longhorns (2006-07), when he was named men's college basketball player of the year by The Associated Press.
"The team that went to the Final Four at Texas was a pretty good team," Barnes said. "It's hard as a coach to say what's your best team until it's put in the books from start to finish. I would like to think that this team's best basketball is ahead of them."
The Vols play their next three games in Knoxville, starting with Tuesday's 9 p.m. matchup against Missouri (11-9, 2-6). Tennessee beat the Tigers 87-63 on Jan. 8.