Texas A&M led No. 8 West Virginia at the half, 34-32, but the Mountaineers went on a 12-1 run in the second half to take a 56-45 lead and held on to defeat the Aggies 73-66 in the semifinal of the 76 Classic on Friday at the Anaheim Convention Center.
The Aggies scored first and led by as much as five, 31-25 at the 4:32 mark in the first half.
West Virginia tied the game at 34 in the first few seconds to the second half, and the game was tied 44-44 until with 14:10 left in the second half, the the Mountaineers went on a 12-1 run, ten of those points by senior guard Da'Sean Butler.
Texas A&M fought back to narrow the deficit to four, 67-63. with 1:08 left in the game.
But after Butler converted a free throw, forward Devin Ebanks stole the ball, got fouled on a slam dunk and made the ensuing free throw to extend the West Virginia lead to 71-63 with 42.9 seconds left.
Da'Sean Butler led West Virginia in scoring with 17, 15 of those in the second half. Devin Ebanks came off the bench to score 14 to go along with his 9 rebounds for the Mountaineers.
B.J. Holmes and Donald Sloan each scored 18 points for the Aggies. Bryan Davis added a season-high 10 rebounds.
West Virginia took advantage of a hot shooting 61.9 percent in the second half.
The Aggies came close to pulling an upset, despite committing 16 turnovers and missing 13-of-31 free throws.
Texas A&M now waits to see who they will be playing in the consolation round on Saturday.