Vandy’s Beal makes most of only hoop
With Vanderbilt down by one with six seconds left, coach Kevin Stallings told Jermaine Beal to drive until he was stopped.
No one stepped in front of Beal until he was a few feet from the basket, and his short fadeaway jumper with 0.6 seconds left gave the No. 23 Commodores a 66-65 win over South Carolina.
It was the sophomore’s only basket of the game.
“I didn’t know who was guarding me, and no one showed up,” Beal said. “So I drove it down, and the shot was there.”
It was the last of four lead changes in the final two minutes and gave Vanderbilt (20-4, 5-4 SEC) its fourth straight win over the Gamecocks.
Just a matter of time for Texas’ Augustin
Iowa State found out Saturday what the rest of the Big 12 already knows: You can only keep D.J. Augustin down for so long.
A.J. Abrams led all scorers with 25 points, Augustin added 17 — including a key jumper with 38 seconds left in overtime — and Texas rallied from a 13-point deficit to beat Iowa State 71-65 for its sixth win in seven games.
Gary Johnson tied a career high with 15 points for the Longhorns, who held Iowa State to three points in overtime. Texas continues to show a knack for digging out of its own holes, rallying from double-digit deficits to win its last three games.
The Longhorns (19-4, 6-2 Big 12) pulled this one out despite an off night from Augustin, who was 5 of 22 from the floor.
Shoetop message carries Sloan, A&M
Every time he bends over to catch his breath, Donald Sloan sees “Not” on top of his left shoe and “Tired” on top of his right shoe.
That attitude helped No. 18 Texas A&M finish off Missouri. The Aggies opened the second half with a 15-point run and built an 18-point lead, then leaned on clutch play from Sloan, a 61 percent free throw shooter, when things got tight at the end of a 77-69 victory Saturday.
“Coach was yelling on the sideline, ‘Foul him, foul him,'” Sloan said. “I made a couple, and the confidence kind of went up, and I made a couple more.”
Sloan scored nine of his career-high 21 points in the final 1:12, going 7-for-8 from the line. He’s been using the shoetop inspiration since a five-overtime loss to Baylor last month.
