HUNTSVILLE -- For the better part of 40 minutes Monday, the Bulldogs went toe-to-toe with the defending Southwestern Athletic Conference champions.
They traded three-pointer for three-pointer; dunk for dunk; jumper for jumper.
But, in the end, Texas Southern held off the pesky Bulldogs and escaped Elmore Gym with a 74-64 win.
The first half featured a shootout between the teams' No. 3s - Demontrae Jefferson of Texas Southern and A&M's De'Ederick Petty.
Petty won the first half battle 15-12 but Jefferson and the Tigers took a 41-30 lead into intermission.
In the second half, the Bulldogs kept nibbling away at the Texas Southern lead.
Then, with about 13 minutes left in the game, the Tigers pulled out to a 53-45 lead.
However, the Bulldogs came right back as Adrian Edwards and Matthew Cotton led a 6-0 run to bring A&M within two points of Texas Southern at 53-51.
But the Bulldogs wouldn't be able to get any closer the rest of the way. Texas Southern built up cushions of 5, 7 and even 11 points over the final 12 minutes to come away with the win.
Quinterian McConico led A&M with 18 points while Petty finished with 17 points. Edwards was strong on the boards with 9 rebounds.
Rakiya Battle, who entered the game just 0.1 assist behind league leader Trelun Banks' 5 assists per game, had a five-assist game.
The Bulldogs close out the season on the road with games at Jackson State on Thursday and Grambling State on Saturday.
Tipoff Thursday is 7:30 p.m. and Saturday's is 6 p.m.
The games can be heard on WJAB-FM 90.9 and wjab.org with Michael Burns on the play-by-play.
