TAMPA, Fla. – The Texas A&M men’s basketball team isn’t done reviving its season after an arduous, month-long tailspin threatened its chances of earning a spot in the NCAA tournament.
The Aggies improved to 7-1 since an eight-game skid, bolstering their case for an at-large berth with a 67-62 victory over fourth-ranked Auburn in the Southeastern Conference tournament quarterfinals Friday at Amalie Arena.
“It’s something that we needed to go through. Everything that we went through earlier in the season literally has prepared us for now. Every game that we lost was a test,” said Quenton Jackson, the Aggies’ leading scorer this season. “At some point, you’ve got to pass the test.
“You study, you study, you study, you study. We failed eight times. But the ninth time, we won.”
Tyrece Radford scored 19 points and grabbed eight rebounds, and Jackson made five free throws in the final minute as the eighth-seeded Aggies avenged their 75-58 loss in February to the SEC regular-season champions and advanced to Saturday’s 1 p.m. semifinal against 15th-ranked and fourth-seeded Arkansas. Texas A&M and Arkansas split their regular-season meetings, with the Aggies winning 86-81 on Jan. 8 at home but losing 76-73 in overtime on the road two weeks later.