Aggies’ win helps NCAA Tournament hopes
COLLEGE STATION — For much of its secondto-last game of the regular season, Texas A&M looked like the team picked to finish second in the Southeastern Conference.
The Aggies, after leading by as many as 23 points in the second half, defeated Mississippi State 75-69 on Wednesday night at Reed Arena.
Four Aggies scored in double digits, and Manny Obaseki led the way with 17 points. A&M has won two consecutive games after losing five straight and falling outside of projections to make the NCAA Tournament.
“They’ve answered the bell over the last week,” A&M coach Buzz Williams said of his players, “and that’s encouraging.”
The Bulldogs (19-11, 8-9 SEC) were projected as about a ninth or 10th seed in the NCAA Tournament as of this week, while the Aggies (17-13, 8-9) are trying to fight their way back into consideration.
“We really just had a hard time getting into a flow offensively,” said Bulldogs coach Chris Jans, whose team sliced the 23point deficit to three with 1:35 remaining before falling back again.
A&M was picked to finish second in the 14-team league in a preseason media poll but is now simply trying to make the top 10 seeds of next week’s SEC tournament at Nashville, Tenn., and avoid being one of the four teams playing in the first round Wednesday.
A&M on Wednesday played without forward Henry Coleman III for a second consecutive game for an undisclosed reason. The Aggies close out their regular season at Mississippi at 1 p.m. Saturday before heading to Nashville.
Senior night saw A&M honor guards Tyrece Radford and Eli Lawrence and forward Wildens Leveque.
“It’s amazing, but I’m still kind of soaking it in,” said Radford, who finished with 14 points, eight rebounds and three assists. “I was thinking, ‘Is this really my last game here?’ All the feelings haven’t hit me yet.”
A week ago, the Bulldogs appeared a shoo-in for the NCAA Tournament but now aren’t so sure they’re bound for a second straight appearance.
“At the end of the day (against A&M), we just dug ourselves too big of a hole,” said Jans, whose program has lost three consecutive games following a five-game winning streak.
Jans said he has no idea how many SEC teams will make the NCAA Tournament and whether they will include his squad.
“It doesn’t matter what I think, and they’re not going to ask me what I think,” Jans said of the tournament selection committee.
Late Wednesday night, Radford was merely wiping his brow after the Aggies escaped with a win after the Bulldogs nearly climbed out of the 23-point hole.
“The house is on fire,” Radford said of his prevailing thought while Mississippi State was clawing back into the game. “It was, ‘How do we put this out?’ It was an emergency, and we had to find out how to put that fire out.”
The Aggies rank 350th out of 351 NCAA teams in 3-point shooting (26.69%) but made 8-of-21 3s (38%) against the Bulldogs.
“It’s like manna from heaven if we make one,” Williams said. “Good shooting is contagious, and bad shooting is contagious at times.”
As for A&M’s NCAA hopes? Williams said the Aggies must merely focus on the next task at hand.
“We have work to do,” he said.