COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Texas A&M men’s basketball coach Billy Kennedy offered a concise invocation when Ole Miss’ Breein Tyree tossed up a 3-pointer from the left of the top of the key late Tuesday night in Reed Arena.
“I was praying it would bounce out,” Kennedy said. “God blessed us with the right bounce.”
The result was a 71-69 Aggies’ victory against the Rebels, Texas A&M’s first Southeastern Conference victory in six tries this season.
“Billy Kennedy is a good friend of mine, a good man and a good coach,” Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy said. “Sometimes the odds have a way of evening out. We had a guy with a clean look and unfortunately it just didn’t go down.”
Fortunately for the Aggies, center Tyler Davis’ final shot did. With the scored tied at 69, Davis missed a short jumper but grabbed the rebound for the putback and a 71-69 A&M lead with 22.7 seconds remaining. That set up the Rebels’ final play with the memorable miss that rattled in and finally out as the crowd exhaled.
A&M (12-6, 1-5 SEC) led 64-62 with 3 minutes, 19 seconds left when Robert Williams collected an alley-oop pass from Duane Wilson and slammed the ball home. On the other end, Williams blocked a shot following a Rebels’ offensive rebound, and D.J. Hogg caused one of the loudest roars of the night when he drained a 3-pointer from the far right corner to lift A&M to a 69-62 lead with 2:51 left.
That wasn’t enough to stave off the Rebels, however, and the Aggies needed Davis and decent defense to finally close it out. The Rebels (10-8, 3-3) have never won in College Station, falling to 0-3.
The teams played before a crowd of 10,578 in the 13,000-seat arena considering A&M was closed on Tuesday because of an ice storm that had enveloped the region starting early that morning. On Tuesday afternoon the university offered free parking for all comers and free admission for all A&M students to try and create a home-court advantage.
Two of Texas A&M’s SEC losses have been by a point each, including when LSU’s Tremont Waters sank a 3-pointer in the same area as Tyree’s shot as time expired to lift the Tigers to a 69-68 victory on Jan. 6. This time, the ball bounced out.
Texas A&M, wich was a season-low 8-for-16 (50 percent) from the free-throw line, needed the win in the worst way. It had been ranked No. 5 as recently as Dec. 31 before falling to No. 11 and then out of the rankings in the last two polls. Williams, a sophomore, had a key role in snapping the losing streak with six dunks, most in spectacular fashion. The forward projects as a first-round selection in the NBA draft this summer.
Ole Miss continued a pattern in which it has traded wins and losses in each of tits first six games in the league.
Texas A&M will play host to Missouri on Saturday, while Ole Miss will play Saturday at Arkansas.
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