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Wow, what a game. There's too much to discuss to waste any time at the top. Let's dive in.
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Mr. Roberson's Neighborhood
In two must win games at home, Kourtney Roberson came to play
- LSU: 16 points, 11 rebounds, 7-10 FG
- Florida: 20 points, 6 rebounds, 8-10 FG
Last night's offensive numbers are only part of the story, though. Roberson held LSU's Jordan Mickey (16.7 PPG; 10.6 RPG) to six points and four rebounds on 2-9 shooting, by far Mickey's worst game of the season. He also made the biggest offensive play of the night, finishing a three-point play with under two minutes remaining. Roberson, who was 1-5 on the line up to that point, made the FT he needed most to put the Ags up three.
The senior has taken his game to a new level recently, and was a huge part of the 2-1 homestand.
The Starters did it again
Pre-game, I said we wouldn't win if our starters were forced to shoulder the entire offensive burden for the third game running.
I was wrong.
The starting five accounted for 91% of the offensive output due to another anemic offensive performance by the Aggie bench (outscored 13-6), and one performance of note here was Jordan Green, who kicked in nine points and zero turnovers on a night where Caruso (7 points, 2-6 FG, 5 assists, 4 fouls, 7 turnovers) wasn't at his best.
The Stretch That Saved the Season
Let's paint the picture... our Aggies are down eight with twelve minutes remaining, and Reed Arena is sounding a bit lethargic. Enter Danuel House.
- Danuel House jumper
- Danuel House jumper
- Danuel House rebound, coast-to-coast insanely difficult finish
- Caruso steal, House pushes, finds Caruso in transition for an easy layup
- House goes to the rack, gets his own rebound, finishes in traffic
Just like that, A&M was up two. In what felt like fifteen seconds, Danuel House completely took over and willed A&M to the lead.
It was yet another "instant offense" display, the type of thing we've come to expect from House (20 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists) by this point. Sure, he can disappear from the game for stretches... but man, he can light up in a hurry.
Should the Aggies make the tourney, I'll look back at that two minute passage of play as the catalyst.
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Make no mistake... we're not in. Not yet. But for the first time in the BK era, we can see it from here.
And the view is just as nice as I remembered.