COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Quintrevion Wisner ran for a career-high 186 yards and Quinn Ewers threw a touchdown pass to lead No. 3 Texas to a 17-7 victory over No. 20 archrival Texas A&M on Saturday night and the Putting the Longhorns in the lead in the Southeastern Conference championship game.

Texas (11-1, 7-1 SEC, No. 3 CFP) will face No. 7 Georgia next Saturday in Atlanta for the SEC title, with the winner earning a first-round bye in the 12-team College Football Playoff receives.

The highly anticipated return of this rivalry, which dates back to the 1890s, had all the hype of a heavyweight title fight. After taking a 17-0 halftime lead, Texas appeared to be on the verge of elimination.

“Defensively, it was just an absolutely dominant performance tonight,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said in his postgame media release. “We won the game physically, and we know we had to do that in the Southeastern Conference.”

But Ewers turned the ball over in the red zone on consecutive possessions to keep the Aggies in the game. The first clue was an interception that Will Lee III returned 93 yards for a touchdown. A Longhorns punt was also blocked in the second half.

Sarkisian acknowledged the mistakes, but — aside from Ewers’ turnovers and the blocked punt — “I really thought we controlled the game and dominated the game.”

Texas A&M (8-4, 5-3, No. 20 CFP) had a shot to cut the lead to three with about 4 1/2 minutes left, but Ethan Burke dropped Amari Daniels on third down in the fourth Yards goal from the 1. The Longhorns stopped the Aggies on three fourth downs that night.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.