Aggies’ six-game win streak snapped
Texas A&M and Mississippi State both had plenty to play for on Saturday afternoon in Starkville, Miss. The Aggies are in contention for a share of a Southeastern Conference regular season title. The Bulldogs are figured to be teetering on the edge of the cutoff for the 68-team NCAA Tournament.
Score one for the home team.
Mississippi State defeated A&M 69-62 in a charged Humphrey Arena, with fans knowing the Bulldogs need every victory possible down the stretch to make the NCAA postseason for the first time since 2019.
“We felt like it was a must-win if we want to continue to have a chance to play in March Madness,” MSU first-year coach Chris Jans told the SEC Network afterward. “We knew it was going to be a dogfight.”
The Bulldogs held the No. 25 Aggies to one field goal in the final 14 minutes and outscored them 34-18 during the same period.
“It’s been fun,” Jans said of his team’s success in February. “It’s been rewarding.
“We had plenty of close games earlier and we were not on the correct side of the ledger when the final buzzer went off. For whatever reason, our group had to go through some tough experiences to learn and grow.
“They did that and it makes you feel good when they respond like that. They stuck with the process and now they are being rewarded for it.”
A&M (21-8, 13-3 SEC), which had its six-game win streak snapped, was trying to win 14 games in SEC play for the first time since joining the league in the summer of 2012, and the Aggies still have two regular-season games remaining to try and do so.
The Bulldogs (19-10, 7-9) led by nine in the first half and the Aggies, thanks to an 8-0 run after the break, led by nine points six minutes into the second half. A&M then went ice cold in the last 14 minutes and following guard Andre Gordon’s 3-pointer with 14:09 remaining.
The Aggies didn’t score again for nearly 13 game minutes from the field, although they somehow stayed in the game with 14 free throws in that same span.
Despite the Aggies’ extended cold spell, MSU only led 57-53 with 3:25 remaining when Bulldogs forward Tolu Smith grabbed an offensive rebound and was fouled on his putback basket. That shoved MSU to an insurmountable 60-53 lead, and the celebration was on in Starkville.
Guard Wade Taylor IV led the Aggies with 21 points but had a crucial turnover with 28 seconds remaining and A&M trailing by four points.
The Bulldogs nearly doubled up the Aggies in points in the paint (34-18), as well.
In addition, A&M had three players foul out: Guard Tyrece Radford and forwards Solomon Washington and Andersson
Garcia.
“There weren’t enough quality possessions,” A&M coach Buzz Williams said on his postgame radio show of the Aggies shooting 17 of 43 (40 percent) from the field.
“If you’re only going to shoot 43 balls because you turn it over 16 times, and you only get eight offensive rebounds, you’re going to play from behind.”
The Aggies stay on the road as the SEC schedule winds down with a Tuesday night game at Mississippi.
A&M then closes out the regular season with a Saturday morning contest against No. 2 Alabama in Reed Arena.
“We need to get home and get back to work early (Sunday) morning,” Williams said of the quick turnaround from Saturday to Tuesday at the most crucial time of the regular season.
The Aggies already have earned one of the prized double byes of the SEC tournament in Nashville, Tenn., from March 8-12. The top four of the league’s 14 teams do not play until the tournament’s third day, in this case March 10 in Bridgestone Arena.
ESPN on Saturday projected the Aggies as a sixth seed in the NCAA Tournament, which they have not made in five years (and under then-coach Billy Kennedy).
Texas A&M, despite Saturday’s hiccup, of course is quite intrigued that the Final Four is only 101 miles from Reed Arena at NRG Stadium in early April.
For their part, the Bulldogs have won seven of their last nine games under Jans, hired from New Mexico State last year to replace the fired Ben Howland.
In recent seasons A&M, too, might have drawn a collective yawn as a visitor, but the Bulldogs and their fans treated a win over the league’s second-place team as a big-time accomplishment on Saturday.
“I’m thankful for ‘The Hump’ and the people who showed up and willed us back into the game,” Jans said of MSU’s rocking arena and with one home game to go for the Bulldogs on Tuesday night against South Carolina.