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Texas Tech upsets No. 6 A&M men
Cessna: Aggies should have knocked Tech out early | Fans: Loss makes for a long drive home
Podcast: Gillispie, Knight, players talk about the game

By RICHARD CROOME
Eagle Sports Writer

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Buy this photo Eagle Photo/Dave McDermand Texas Tech guard Martin Zeno (facing) celebrates with teammate Jarrius Jackson moments after Tech's last-second win over A&M on Tuesday night at Reed Arena.

For the second time in as many games, Texas Tech stole the last-second thunder from Texas A&M.

Jarrius Jackson capped his offensive highlight show with a 10-foot jump shot that swirled around in the net as the buzzer sounded to give the Red Raiders a 77-75 victory over the sixth-ranked Aggies.

Six seconds earlier, it appeared as if Acie Law IV had added to his string of last-shot heroics with a 3-pointer from the top of the key to tie the game at 75-75.

But Jackson, who had a game-high 31 points, played the hero, drilling the short jumper to cap a 12-for-20 shooting performance on a night that belonged to the Red Radiers.

"I just looked at the time and saw I had 6 seconds left, so I just wanted to take it as deep as I could," Jackson said of his final drive and shot. "I thought I could get off a good shot, and I took it."

Donald Sloan stepped up to try and take a charge, and Marlon Pompey tried to disrupt the play as well. But Jackson was poised enough to let Pompey fly by before releasing the game-winning shot.

"The thing that pleased me the most was that we've been after Jackson because of his failure to use the shot fake a lot," Texas Tech coach Bobby Knight said. "He came down and had presence of mind to know how much time was left and to make a shot fake. That was a tough thing for the defense to handle because they obviously can't foul."

Knight said the key to the play was Texas Tech's Charlie Burgess getting the ball in bounds to Jackson immediately after Law's 3-pointer.

"Jackson went down and made a great play, and that's just what it was," said Law, who had a team-high 23 points. "He was hot all night, and that's the way he capped it off, with a game-winner. He stopped on a dime, and I'm not sure who was guarding him, but they kept going when he stopped, and he knocked it down."

Texas Tech (16-10, 5-6 Big 12) won the first game between the two teams 70-68 in Lubbock when Martin Zeno stole an inbounds pass intended for Joseph Jones in the final seconds to seal the victory.

Since that game, Tech had lost five in a row, and A&M had won five straight.

A&M (21-4, 9-2) is 1/2 game ahead of Kansas for first place in the Big 12. Kansas plays at Colorado on Wednesday.

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Buy this photo Eagle Photo/Dave McDermand Texas Tech guard Charlie Burgess shoots over Texas A&M's Acie Law IV on Tuesday at Reed Arena.

Tech took the lead at 65-63 on a Burgess jumper. Zeno gave the Red Raiders their biggest lead at 71-65 with a swooping layup.

A&M's Antanas Kavaliauskas (18 points, 8 rebounds) closed the gap with a three-point play with 1:36 left, and Joseph Jones (18 points) had two baskets inside on back-to-back possessions, but the Aggies were unable to keep the Red Raiders off the foul line.

"They did a good job of getting into the lane, and when the big guys were out, they went into attack mode," Law said. "They were either getting fouled or scoring, and Zeno and Jackson just took over."

A&M had an opportunity to put the Red Raiders away early, leading 36-25 with 3 minutes left in the first half.

Tech turned the ball over 14 times in the first half, and the Aggies scored 14 points off of the turnovers.

But Darryl Dora got open for a short jumper, and Jackson gave the 12,926 in attendance a sign of things to come by working his way to the basket and double-clutching before laying it in to beat the first-half buzzer. It pulled the Red Raiders to within 37-31.

"We're up 11, and we come out of [a] timeout and run a play to the absolute wrong side," A&M coach Billy Gillispie said. "We missed the front end of two one-and-ones in the first half. We have a lot of things going our way, and then we have two guys come off the bench and let [Jackson] catch it the first time and score, and he really gets going. We had plenty of opportunities."

NOTES - Tech's shooting percentage of 51.9 was the highest against the Aggies since Kansas shot 54.8 percent on Jan. 25, 2006. ... A&M had won 21 games straight at home since that loss to Kansas. ... A&M came into the game as the leading team in the nation in defensive field goal percentage at 35.7.