Aggie Hoops at the Dance: A&M Falls in Second Round’s Final Seconds

Ah, last night brought such a heart-breaking loss, ending the Aggies’ season when they were only seconds away from the Sweet Sixteen.

LSU calls the play “special,” and Darrel Mitchell ran it to perfection.

With the clock running out on his team’s hopes, the Tigers’ lone senior made a long 3-pointer with 3.9 seconds remaining to give the Southeastern Conference regular-season champions a 58-57 victory over Texas A&M on Saturday in the second round of the Atlanta Region.

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The victory sends fourth-seeded LSU (25-8) to the regional semifinals against top-seed Duke (32-3) on Thursday night.

Davis led LSU with 21 points, including a key basket in the final minute. Mitchell finished with 16.

The Tigers seemingly were in control when Mitchell made two foul shots for a 53-46 lead with 3:31 to go. But No. 12 seed Texas A&M (22-9), in the tournament for the first time since 1987, wasn’t ready to go home.

The Aggies wiped out the seven-point deficit over the next 91 seconds, then went ahead 55-53 on Joseph Jones’ jump hook in the lane.

“That’s how it’s been all year. Things ain’t always going to go well for us,” Law said. “Coach always tells us to stick with it, continue to fight, continue to fight. We played a bad game. We weren’t ourselves tonight, but we continued to fight.”

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Law finished with 15 points on 5-for-16 shooting. Kavaliauskas added 12 for the Aggies.

The Aggies were in the second round of the tournament for only the third time, and their victory over Syracuse was their first in the NCAAs since their only trip to a regional semifinal in 1980.

Despite the loss, the Aggies clearly have a program on the rise under coach Billy Gillispie, the former Bill Self assistant who inherited a team that was winless in the Big 12 and won seven games overall two years ago.

“This will leave a sour taste in our mouths. But it doesn’t take away from the year we had,” Law said.

“A lot of people didn’t expect us to do what we did. We finished in fourth place and got 10 wins in the Big 12 and got our first Big 12 Tournament victory. … We had an outstanding year, but unfortunately for us, we didn’t finish out the year the way we wanted to.”

All this just two seasons removed from an 0-16 Big 12 campaign. Yes, this is certainly a program on the rise.

Thanks for the thrills and constant effort, Ags. I’m glad I finally got to watch my alma mater in March Madness.