Instant Reaction: Aggies Survive 68-66

Sometimes, there's nothing prettier than winning ugly.

Our Aggies didn't have their A game today, but they executed down the stretch and gutted out a 68-66 victory over a Bulldog squad that had every intention of stealing this game.

Three in a row? Three in a row. Let's break it down.

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The Nightman Cometh

Danuel House was very, very poor in the opening 2/3 of this game... but he closed extremely strong, scoring 14 of the Aggies' last 18 points. It wasn't always pretty... but it was the aggressive "grind your way to the line" attitude we needed on a day where the shots weren't falling.

He was also the only guy on the team who could shoot free throws, hitting 6 of 8 on an evening where the rest of the team went 5 for 12.

Make no mistake: if Danuel House doesn't take over late, we lose this basketball game.

Davis Keeps Developing

Tyler Davis has been lauded for his surprisingly mature post game since the day he walked on campus. However, as JDMyatt pointed out in the game preview, his defensive physicality was exposed in the January battle against stellar MSU senior Gavin Ware.

That script was flipped on its' ear tonight.

Davis routinely set up shop wherever he wanted offensively, and Ware was powerless to stop it.

• Tyler Davis: 15 points, 5 offensive rebounds, 6-8 shooting
• Gavin Ware: 8 points, 9 rebounds, 3-7 shooting

Davis won that head-to-head battle pretty convincingly, and it was a nice marker of his progress since the beginning of the conference season.

The Road Beckons

Efforts like this won't be good enough to sweep the upcoming away games at Mizzou and Auburn. Kudos to the team for pulling it together late and nabbing the victory, but we need a higher sustained level of play if we want to win out.

And make no mistake, if we want a chance at the conference we have to close 3-0. Time to get our minds right and hit the road... where we've lost our last four.

BTHO Mizzou