NEW YORK (AP)–Jack Nunge made the go-ahead basket with 3.1 seconds left and Xavier won its first NIT championship in 64 years Thursday night, rallying for a 73-72 victory over Texas A&M at Madison Square Garden.
Colby Jones scored 21 points for the Musketeers (23-13) and was selected the tournament’s most outstanding player. Dwon Odom added 18, and Nunge had 15 points and 11 rebounds to help Xavier erase a 10-point deficit under interim coach Jonas Hayes.
Quenton Jackson had 23 points for the Aggies (27-13), left out of the NCAA Tournament despite reaching the SEC final, where they lost to Tennessee. It was a surprising snub by the selection committee that drew criticism from Aggies coach Buzz Williams and others.
It was the last National Invitation Tournament title game at Madison Square Garden for at least a couple of years – ending a college basketball tradition that dates to 1938.
MSG won’t host the semifinals and finals in 2023 and 2024, the NIT announced Monday, saying it has started a bid process to find new sites for those years and an announcement is expected this spring.
National Invitation Tournament – Championship
Madison Square Garden (New York, New York)
Thursday, March 31, 2022 | 6 p.m. CT tipoff
ABOUT THE GAME
- The Texas A&M men’s basketball dropped a back-and-forth 73-72 decision to Xavier in the Championship game of the National Invitational Tournament on Thursday at Madison Square Garden.
- In a game that featured 17 lead changes, the Aggies had a potential game-winning jump shot from Tyrece Radford rattle out as time expired.
- A pair of Aggies were named to the NIT All-Tournament Team: Quenton Jackson and Tyrece Radford.
RECORDS AND SERIES NOTES
- The Aggies ended the season with a 27-13 record, which marked a 19-victory improvement from 2020-21 (8-10). It is the largest season-to-season win total improvement in program history, bettering the 14-win improvement from 2003-04 to 2004-05 in Billy Gillispie’s first season at Texas A&M. Gillispie’s initial coaching staff included current Aggie head coach Buzz Williams.
- The 27 wins were one shy of the school record of 28 wins in a season, which was accomplished by the 2015-16 Aggies that were SEC Co-Champions and advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16.
- The Aggies joined an elite handful of teams that have reached the 40-game plateau in game played in a season tonight. The NCAA record for games played in a season is 41 games, accomplished by UConn’s 2011 national championship team and Michigan’s national runner-up team in 2018. Texas A&M is the 18th team in NCAA history to reach the 40-game plateau. The Aggies’ previous high number of games in a season was 37 by the 2015-16 Aggies.
- The Aggies fell to 11-8 all-time in the NIT and now trail Xavier 2-0 in the all-time series between the two schools.
TEAM NOTES
- The nation’s leader in steals, the Aggies had five takeaways against Xavier to raise their season total to 398, which obliterated the old record of 288 steals.
- Texas A&M utilized a starting lineup of Quenton Jackson, Wade Taylor IV, Henry Coleman III, Tyrece Radford and Manny Obaseki for the 13th time (11-2).
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
- With a game-high 23 points in the final, senior Quenton Jackson raised his season point total to 591 points, which moved him to No. 8 on Texas A&M’s all-time single season scoring list.
- Jackson closed out the season with double figure points in 21 of the Aggies’ last 22 games and in 32 of the Aggies’ 40 games in 2021-22. It marked the 19th game this season where Jackson led the team in points.
- Sophomore Henry Coleman III had a team-high nine rebounds, including three offensive boards, marking the 19th time that he led the Aggies in rebounds in a game.
- The Aggies had a 17-to-8 advantage in bench points, which included a 12-point game from Queens, New York, native Hassan Diarra.