WBB: Five Thoughts ... No. 5 A&M 65, No. 4 LSU 71

1. Digging the hole – For the second time in six days the Aggies were hampered by a massively slow start against LSU and both times it spelled their demise. A&M fought back and nearly pulled the comeback for the ages on Friday, but ultimately it was the early run that gave the Tigers the cushion to hold off the Aggie surge through the second half.

A&M missed their first 10 shots from the field over the game’s first five minutes and also committed a pair of turnovers while LSU went 6-of-7 over the same stretch to open up an early 13-0 lead. The Aggies then scored on back-to-back possessions but then hit another cold stretch that allowed the Tigers to push it out to the game’s largest at 24-5 with 11:40 left in the first. The point here is that A&M was exceptionally cold on both ends of the floor to start the game and lacked the early energy that we saw last night against Auburn.

2. Taking care of the ball/defending LSU’s guards – This morning on TexAgs Radio, Gabe and I talked about what A&M needed to do in order to avoid a repeat performance of the 17-point loss to the Tigers on Sunday and the two main key points we came up with were the need to guard LSU’s guards and taking care of the ball on the offensive end. The Aggies went one-of-two on those keys and ended up losing a close game.

First the good … A&M turned the ball over just 11 times throughout the course of the game, giving it away just four times in the first half. Compare that to the 24 times they turned it over in Baton Rouge on Sunday and you’re feeling pretty good about that stat.

Now the bad … A&M let LSU’s three starting guards combine for a total of 46 points with 22 of those coming from All-SEC first teamer Danielle Ballard. Yesterday, Courtney Williams was asked about matching up with the Tigers’ guards and said that they needed to follow the game plan better than they did on Sunday. While the trio of starting guards were held to less points than they were six days ago (58-46), I’d venture a guess that the coaching staff would have liked to limit them even more.

3. A&M’s inability to garner complete momentum – While it was tough to watch A&M fall into such a deep hole for the second straight time out against LSU, the team still deserves credit for finding a way to claw their way out of it and making it a one possession game with less than two minutes to play.

However, it seemed that every time A&M was poised to make a large run that would get them back in the game for good, the Tigers found a way to stomp out the momentum and elongated the time it took for the Aggies to make the comeback. In fact, in the game’s final 15 minutes, A&M’s largest unanswered run was a 6-0 stretch to cut the lead from 10 to four with 4:36 remaining. But once again, LSU found a way to push it right back out to eight and fended off the Aggies for the victory.

4. The need for more from Courtney Walker – You would have liked to see more production out of Courtney Walker on Friday afternoon. The junior from Oklahoma finished the game with eight points and a single rebound while being hampered with foul trouble in both halves. Since being named SEC Player of the Week on February 23rd, she’s averaged just nine points a game and is shooting 33% from the field. As one of the best players on A&M’s roster, you’ve come to expect more from her and the team will need more from her going into the NCAA Tournament.

5. What lies ahead -- Finally, with everything but the NCAA Tournament behind them, it’s time to take a look at where the Aggies might fall on Selection Monday. After the game, Blair was asked what seed he thinks his team is and he quickly answered, saying his squad was a six. He continued to note that this will be the lowest seed his team has earned in the last 10 seasons, but also that that is where they deserve to be.

With the new hosting format, the hosting sites are given to the top-16 teams (seeds 1-4), so it’s likely the Aggies will have to travel for the first two rounds for the first time since 2011. However, there is still a slight possibility that A&M could be selected to host, even as a six-seed, because the Louisville Cardinals are unable to host due to hosting the men’s tournament and if they draw a three-seed, the six-seed in their pod would likely be the benefactor. A lot of things have to fall A&M’s way for that to happen, but with a proven track record of good attendance numbers when hosting, it’s not an impossible scenario.