Florida St. withstands Texas A&M's swagger

It was a supremely confident group of Texas A&M starters who calmly walked over to press row and one by one double fist-bumped the Aggies' radio team of Dave South and Al Pulliam prior to the opening tip Friday against Florida State at the United Center.

That swagger didn't last long, though, because for minute after agonizing minute, everything that could go wrong for the No. 7 Aggies did. Steal, steal, miss, airball, block, rebound off head, block, steal, shot over backboard ... and on and on it went.

Finally, a dunk by David Lobeau seven minutes in got the Aggies off the schneid and amazingly they trailed just 7-2 at that point. And they actually led at halftime before the No.10 Seminoles pulled away late for a 57-50 victory in a wild one at the United Center.

“That was a weird game,” A&M coach Mark Turgeon said. “We started out so poorly. I couldn't believe we were up at half.”

He wasn't alone. FSU coach Leonard Hamilton was beside himself that the Seminoles allowed the Aggies back in.

“Coach Ham came in here at halftime and gave us piece of his mind,” said Bernard James, who finished with 10 points and 3 blocks. “He said we weren't being tough, we didn't want the game enough. I think everybody took that to heart. We came back out and had a great second half.”

But it wasn't without some drama as the Aggies increased their lead to 8 points to open the half.

“You think, ‘Well, God, we're going to run away with that game,'” Turgeon said.

Not this time.

FSU star Chris Singleton, coming off a foot injury, played only 16 minutes but provided the dagger with a 3-pointer that made it 45-40 and propelled FSU on its way to a Sunday showdown with Notre Dame.

“That was big,” Turgeon said. “It took our spirit away right there.”