Texas A&M stumbles to 4th straight loss, 76-71 at LSU

With the win, LSU improves to 9-3 in the SEC, which keeps the team in a tie at the top of the conference with Kentucky and bolsters its NCAA tournament resume. “It makes no sense”, Martin said in his opening comments Wednesday after the Gamecocks beat LSU in a game for first place in the SEC. Action gets underway at 1:00 pm ET on Saturday, Feb. 13 and can be seen on CBS. SC has one of the best records in the country and play with a consistency other teams don’t have. A bruised hip/hip pointer suffered in practice had starting forward Jalen Jones sidelined at the start of the game, replaced in the lineup by Tonny Trocha-Morelos. The two would exchange threes to end the half and A&M entered the break with a 37-33 lead. “I was on a mission from the jump because Davis had a good first game”. That came after Thornwell notched a season-high 25 points with nine assists and six rebounds in win at No. 8 Texas A&M.

Texas A&M: Texas A&M had won the previous three games in the series, including one this season, 71-57, in College Station, Texas…. In either case, LSU can only remain tied for the top spot in the league and it’s certainly a win they need to have. This is particularly encouraging for LSU, as he’s the piece that can put them overtop in close games with his scoring acumen.

South Carolina’s coming off two huge wins (emphasis on the word huge). The Aggies turned the ball over in bunches early, but shored up their ball security in the second half while the Tigers had careless giveaways throughout.

The Tigers also got 15 points from senior guard Keith Hornsby, who was held to eight points in the loss at Texas A&M and was out with a sports hernia injury for three losses in November.

After the media timeout, Jones countered a Ben Simmons layup with five consecutive points via a deep ball and two free throws to give the Aggies their first lead of the game. I’ve always been told bad news first is best so here we go. Some had A&M as a 3 seed as recently as Monday. Craig Victor II (16 points) absolutely took over in the second half, using aggressive play to help LSU’s advantage on the offensive boards (14-7) and at the free throw line (23 of 29 for LSU compared to 6 of 7 for A&M) as the Tigers pulled away in the final minutes. Without him and the Tigers in the field it will certainly be a disappointment.

The Aggies never trailed again in the opening half, when they shot 56 percent and twice led by as many as seven points, the second time on Tonny Trocha Morelos’ 3, which made it 37-30.