Print story | Email story

Cessna: If they play like this again, Aggies might be done soon
A&M-OSU: Cowboys upset Aggies | Photos: A&M-Oklahoma State slideshow
Big 12 Men: Notebook | Texas-Baylor | Kansas State-Texas Tech | Kansas-Oklahoma

By ROBERT CESSNA
Eagle Sports Writer

OKLAHOMA CITY - Texas A&M's season is not finished, but if the Aggies play like they did in Friday night's 57-56 loss to Oklahoma State, it will be earlier than anticipated.

Enlarge photo

Buy this photo Eagle Photo/Butch Ireland Texas A&M head coach Billy Gillispie talks with Acie Law IV during the Big 12 Championship quarterfinal game at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City on Friday. Oklahoma State defeated No. 7 Texas A&M 57-56 with a basket in the final seconds of the game.

A&M had numerous chances to put away Oklahoma State but didn't. The Aggies missed six layups, coughed up 17 turnovers and missed eight free throws in the one-point loss.

And to make sure it really hurt, the Aggies missed three shots in the closing seconds.

"We couldn't execute the way we needed to," A&M head coach Billy Gillispie said. "We didn't finish plays in the basket."

Gillispie and All-America point guard Acie Law IV used the words "finish" or "finishing" seven times in a seven-question postgame press conference. Whatever the question, the answer was finish - as in "we didn't ...."

What was hard for the Aggies to swallow is that Oklahoma State led for only 4 minutes, 5 seconds. Yet the Cowboys refused to fold, even when standout guard JamesOn Curry fouled out with 1:04 left.

Still, the Cowboys managed to finish.

The Cowboys had a 13-1 edge in second-chance points, even though the Aggies had the size advantage.

OSU didn't have a starter shoot better than 50 percent, but its bench was 6-of-13 shooting from the field and hit all three free throws for 16 points.

Enlarge photo

Buy this photo Eagle Photo/Butch Ireland Oklahoma State's JamesOn Curry (24), right and Marcus Dove (5) celebrate their victory over Texas A&M in their Big 12 Men's Basketball Championship quarterfinal fame at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City Friday. Oklahoma State defeated Texas A&M 57-56. butch ireland

OSU played like a team that knew it has to win the Big 12 Championship to get an NCAA Tournament berth. But the Aggies should have been able to match the Cowboys' intensity - and maybe bring more, considering they were the superior team.

A&M was playing for a No. 1 seed in the NCAAs, but that's lost. The Aggies now need only worry about making it past next weekend - and coming to grips with the fact that they aren't nearly as invincible as they were coming out of Allen Fieldhouse on Feb. 3 after a 69-66 victory.

Texas Tech's motion offense showed the upset in Lubbock wasn't a fluke. Texas beat the Aggies in a track meet, refusing to give up the state's basketball supremacy. And now OSU showed A&M can be beat another way: with solid defense and a little muscle.

OSU showed it learned a thing or two by losing twice to A&M by 19 and 20 points.

"We did not want Acie Law to beat us," OSU head coach Sean Sutton said.

And Law didn't. He was held to 10 points and didn't score in the final 9 minutes, taking only one shot.

"Sometimes Acie is not going to be able to score every single time, but if your other guys perform like they need to, you should be able to be OK," Gillispie said. "And we have really good players."

But some of them didn't play like it when A&M needed them the most.

Forward Antanas Kavaliauskas missed his first nine shots and his last one, which would have been the game-winner.

Forward Josh Carter was 1-of-5 shooting in the second half, and he, too, missed at the end. Actually Carter missed twice, even though the statistics crew didn't officially give him the second miss.

It was simply that kind of night.