The Mississippi State Bulldogs and Texas A&M Aggies advanced Wednesday in the first round of the SEC tournament, whittling the field down to 12 before the first full day of games Thursday.
SEC basketball tournament 2013 results and bracket: Texas A&M, Mississippi State advance
The SEC tournament kicked off with a couple of moderately close games Wednesday.
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The 11th-seeded Aggies won their first-ever SEC tournament game with a 71-62 win over the No. 14 Auburn Tigers. Elston Turner, the Aggies' first-team All-SEC selection, scored 22 points on 6-of-14 shooting. The Aggies' early 24-14 held through, as Auburn's 20-of-50 shooting was not enough to offset its 31-21 disadvantage in rebounding.
Texas A&M will play the sixth-seeded Missouri Tigers in Thursday's second round.
The No. 13 Bulldogs topped the No. 12 South Carolina Gamecocks in the earlier game Wednesday. The Bulldogs, which were at one point this season rated the lowest team of all BCS conferences according to KenPom.com but are now No. 261 and ranked above the TCU Horned Frogs, have now won three of their last four games. Before that streak, they had lost 13 straight.
Mississippi State will play No. 5 Tennessee on Thursday. The top four seeds in the tournament earned byes to Friday’s quarterfinals.
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