Huskers suffer painful last-minute loss to Aggies

Texas A&M's Josh Carter was mobbed at mid-court Tuesday night after his 3-pointer at the buzzer found the bottom of the net, capping an 18-point comeback against Nebraska.

Carter's buzzer beater gave the Aggies its first lead since the 13:51 mark in the first half.

"Josh Carter's a great player, and he made a play," said NU coach Doc Sadler. "Sek Henry was right there, but we've got to switch out and not let him get the basketball. And we didn't do it. We didn't execute, and that's my fault."

With the 57-55 win, the Aggies move to 20-8 overall and 6-7 in Big 12 Conference play while Nebraska falls to 16-10 and 6-7 in league play.

Sadler said the loss came down to lack of execution in the second half.

"The last thing I told (my team) before we went out to the game is ‘It's going to come down to execution, and the team that executes the best is going to win the basketball game,'" Sadler said. "They executed the best, and they made plays when they needed to make the plays, and we didn't."

NU led 55-54 with 19 seconds left in the game when Cookie Miller missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw attempt. The Aggies got the rebound and called a timeout.

Texas A&M's Donald Sloan missed a jump shot at the other end, and a scramble for the rebound followed. Ade Dagunduro tried to launch the ball into the backcourt for Steve Harley to run down.

Harley tried to save the ball from going out of bounds but was called for stepping out of bounds on a controversial call, giving the Aggies possession with five seconds remaining.

"I figured if I throw it down and give Steve and Sek a chance to run it down," Dagunduro said. "If not, (Texas A&M) is on the other end with maybe five seconds to go. I thought Steve got it, but unfortunately he was a little bit out of bounds."

The Cornhuskers had two fouls to give and committed their first at half court with two seconds remaining.

Sadler wanted his team to commit another foul after the inbound pass, but the Huskers failed to execute and Carter sunk the game-winner with Henry's hand in his face.

"It's funny because we just practiced that set play this morning for the first time in about a month," said Texas A&M coach Mark Turgeon. "It worked for us. Josh (Carter), being a senior, stepped up and made a big shot."

Nebraska led 48-30 with 14:01 remaining when the Aggies started gradually cutting into the lead.

"It was our impatience," Sadler said. "We scored easy baskets in the first half. If we would have continued to swing the basketball like we were in the doing, even late, we would have gotten easy baskets."

Both Nebraska and Texas A&M had a lot riding on this game because both were considered bubble teams for the NCAA Tournament. Consequently, losing on a last-second shot after blowing an 18-point lead didn't sit well with the Huskers.

"(Texas A&M) did an excellent job of coming back," Dagunduro said. "No excuses on our guys' part."

Dagunduro led the Huskers in scoring with 16 points while Ryan Anderson and Brandon Richardson each added nine.

Carter had 11 points for the Aggies and Bryan Davis pitched in 10.

Sadler said the locker room was down after the game, but they have to regroup.

"It's a tough loss," he said. "It keeps them alive and makes the road a really tough road when we had a chance there to get it and we didn't. We have to regroup."

LUKENICHOLS@DAILYNEBRASKAN.COM