By ROBERT CESSNA
Eagle Columnist

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WACO -- Texas A&M pushed back in a big way, proving that the rumors of its demise were at least 40 minutes premature.

The Aggies bulled their way for a convincing 71-57 victory over the Baylor Bears with relentless rebounding and a physical defense that had been sorely missing in big games.

The largest crowd for a Baylor men's basketball game -- 10,545 -- created an atmosphere that had the feel of an NCAA Tournament game. Baylor fans were ready to celebrate a victory on Senior Night that would have cemented the school's first NCAA Tournament appearance in 20 years.

But when the ball went up, it was A&M that played with the poise of an NCAA Tournament team.

"That was a great environment," A&M head coach Mark Turgeon said. "They made us concentrate tonight."

The results were priceless.

"You saw some kids grow up tonight," Turgeon said.

The Aggies were strong on the boards, which wasn't the case in the first meeting when the finesse-style Bears grabbed a five-overtime victory.

A&M had smart offensive possessions, looking nothing like the team that scored 10 first-half points last time out in a 64-37 loss at Oklahoma on Saturday.

The Aggies also milked the shot clock time after time, doing what they wanted. That frustrated the guard-oriented Bears, which at first took the edge off the crowd until it grew restless as Baylor's fruitless second-half possessions began piling up.

Baylor never made a run because the Aggies didn't allow it. A&M defended every Baylor player to the point of frustrating the Bears.

A&M freshman DeAndre Jordan had an inspiring 34 minutes, dominating the paint the way a 7-footer should. He had 10 rebounds and a school-record six blocks (for a Big 12 game).

His play was big as senior post Joseph Jones was limited to 15 minutes with foul trouble.

The physical play was contagious for the Aggies as the Bears shot a season-low 33.3 percent from the field to finish with 57 points, another season low.

Baylor players and fans allowed their tempers to get the best of them with the outcome decided. A technical was called on LaceDarius Dunn when he fouled A&M point guard Donald Sloan too hard.

Later, Baylor's Mamadou Diene and someone on the A&M bench were hit with technicals after Baylor's Tweety Carter was knocked down.

A few fans from both schools got into verbal sparring matches. Unfortunately, the police seemed a little short in numbers and not as intimidating as A&M's frontline.

But the Baylor student section near the Aggie bench was much more offensive than the Bears.

Sloan gave them a parting shot.

Turgeon was signaling for A&M not to score with time running out, but Sloan wasn't watching. Too focused on shutting up the Bear fans, Sloan threw the ball off the backboard, skied after it and threw it down with a tomahawk dunk.

"I got kinda caught up in the moment," Sloan said.

Who could blame him?

"That was about three weeks of frustration that's been built up in us," Turgeon said.

Sloan was one of the goats in A&M's first meeting with Baylor. He missed 7 of 11 free throws and 11 of 18 field goals with four turnovers before fouling out in the five-overtime loss.

Turgeon understood Sloan's frustration, but he wasn't ready for Sloan's dunk.

"The arena was already hostile," Turgeon said. "They were throwing bottles all over the place, which was ridiculous. I wish he would have just let the clock go out. The game was over."

Turgeon had a casual look for the game with no tie, having been a little bit under the weather. He'd eaten a little fruit and didn't want to pull a tie over his scratchy, sore throat.

Instead, he allowed his team to put a knot on Baylor's NCAA Tournament chances, saving its own in the process.

• Robert Cessna's e-mail address is robert.cessna@theeagle.com.

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