A&M stunned as Texas overcomes 22-point deficit to pull off upset, 70-69

AUSTIN, Texas  — Twice now, No. 13 Texas A&M (15-5, 4-3) has shown no Southeastern Conference basketball deficit is too big to overcome.

But on Saturday, they showed no lead is big enough to be safe.

A 22-point lead evaporated in less than 17 minutes in a plague of mistakes, missed shots and missed opportunities, which enabled Texas (14-6, 3-4) to steal a 70-69 victory at Moody Center.

Longhorns guard Tramon Mark scored over Pharrel Payne with three seconds remaining to hand the Aggies a loss as improbable as recent come-from-behind victories over Oklahoma and Ole Miss.

The Aggies erased an 18-point second-half lead to defeat Oklahoma. They rallied down 12 to beat Ole Miss.

This loss was more gut-wrenching than those wins were glorious. That’s how it is when falling to a bitter arch-enemy that you beat by 20 points three weeks ago.

“There’s a lot of lessons for us to learn,” A&M coach Buzz Williams said. “We’ve been on the other side of this the last couple of weeks. I don’t think at this level you can ever think that anything is over.

“It’s never as easy as you think. At times in the second half, we weren’t accountable for what we have to do.”

In that disastrous second half, the Aggies committed seven turnovers, converted just 2-of-6 free throws, were assessed two costly technical fouls and could not slow down Texas star freshman Tre Johnson, who had 24 of his 30 points after halftime.

The Longhorns looked for Johnson to shoot them back into contention. Conversely, A&M seemed to struggle to find its star — guard Wade Taylor IV — when he was needed most.

Taylor, who led the Aggies with 15 points, hit 3-pointer to give A&M a 64-50 6:39 remaining.

However, he did not take another field goal attempt until an attempted layup was blocked with 29 seconds remaining. He also lofted up a desperate half-court shot that caromed off the rim at the buzzer.

“We wanted to take the last shot, but there was still time, and the ball was probably in the most dangerous guy’s hands on the opposing team,” Texas coach Rodney Terry said. “Wade Taylor is a shot-maker. He’d made some daggers already in the game. We didn’t need him to make another one to close this out.”

Maybe Taylor was under-utilized because all Aggies felt confident with the ball after an amazing first half when six players connected eight times from 3-point range.

Maybe it was because Texas just did a good job denying Taylor the basketball.

“I thought they did a good defensively on ‘Four’ (Taylor) when he didn’t have the ball in his hands,” Williams said. “Making it disruptive. Making it hard for him to catch it.”

That was the Texas plan.

“Wade is a tough guard,” Terry said. “He’s a guy who can get downhill. He’s a guy who can shoot with range. He’s one of the best players to ever play at Texas A&M.

“So down the stretch, we needed to get the ball out of his hands. We needed to limit his touches. Make somebody else make a shot. Make somebody else have to make a play to beat us.”

Alas, nobody could.

Will Huffman, TexAgs

Texas A&M made three of eight free throws attempted on Saturday.

Taylor was almost enough, though. He hit a 3-pointer to give A&M a seemingly comfortable 51-29 lead with 17:17 remaining.

Soon afterward, everything began to unravel.

Texas went on an 8-0 run, which included a couple of free throws by Johnson after Henry Coleman III was assessed a technical foul.

Payne appeared to stem the tide with back-to-back baskets, but Texas answered with a 13-1 run to pull within 56-51 with 9:16 remaining.

Again, Taylor looked like he might save the Aggies. He bookended a pair of 3-pointers around a Solomon Washington jumper to give A&M its 64-50 edge.

But over the next three minutes, A&M committed three consecutive turnovers and were assessed a technical foul — maybe unfairly — for having six players on the court — and missed two of three free throws.

Johnson capitalized to score nine points in a 10-0 run. Later, he hit a couple of 3-pointers. The second slashed A&M’s lead to 69-68.

A Taylor layup was blocked. Mark converted on the other end. And the Aggies were left stunned and wondering how they let a big win get away.

“We’ll grow from it,” Williams said. “We’ll learn from it. We’ve been on the other end of it. That’s just part of what this is.”