NASHVILLE -- Down 10 points to Texas A&M at halftime of their SEC tournament second-round game Thursday afternoon, Auburn coach Bruce Pearl entered the Tigers' locker room in something less than a happy mood.
"BP came in the locker room mad," said AU junior forward Cinmeon Bowers. "So when he gets mad, it's time to go. We can't back off. We got a steal and it got us going."
Going, as it turns out, all the way to today's quarterfinal round against No. 4 seed LSU, thanks to a 66-59 win that probably knocked the Aggies out of the NCAA tournament.
"It's very hard," A&M forward Kourtney Roberson said after the Aggies turned it over 19 times, including 12 in the final half to fall to 20-11 on the season. "We've just got to move on, and hopefully we can keep playing down the road."
If they do play, it likely will be in the National Invitation Tournament after being projected as an NCAA tourney team for most of the season before losing four of their last five games. Ironically, the Aggies' lone win in that stretch had been by 25 points over Auburn.
But that was with high-scoring guard Danuel House on the floor. House was out with an injury Thursday and A&M struggled mightily to score without him, hitting just 30 percent of their field-goal tries in the final period, including 0-of-10 from the 3-point line. Even worse, point guard Alex Caruso turned it over 10 times while missing eight of 10 shots.
"Alex is one of our best players," said losing coach Billy Kennedy. "He just had a bad game."
For all but three times in the past 30 years, Auburn has had bad game after bad game in the SEC tourney. Thursday was just the third time in three decades that the Tigers have won as many as two games in the event.
"Now maybe that's not something you want to brag about," said Pearl, the former Tennessee coach. "But those are the facts. And those facts matter to (the Tigers)."
This fact should matter to LSU: KT Harrell lit up the Aggies for 25 points.
"Sometimes you look out there and think, 'This is a really interesting game,'" Pearl said. "KT Harrell is taking it over."
If he does that today against LSU, Auburn just might win as many as three games in this tournament for only the second time in 30 years.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com