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USATSI

Texas A&M kept its NCAA Tournament hopes alive on Thursday with a thrilling overtime victory against No. 9 seed Florida in the second round of the SEC Tournament. The No. 8 seed Aggies used a 3-pointer from Hassan Diarra with 0.4 seconds left in the extra period to escape with an 83-80 victory and advance to play No. 1 seed Auburn in the quarterfinals on Friday.

The Aggies, one of the "First Four Out" of the projected NCAA Tournament field to start the day, could be moving into the "Last Four In" for now, according to CBS Sports Bracketology Expert Jerry Palm.

Until late, it appeared the Aggies would cruise into the quarterfinals. But the Gators rallied from a 12-point deficit in the final 3:17 of regulation to force overtime. The loss ends Florida's season with a 19-13 record and puts the Gators in bad shape entering Selection Sunday.

The win marks five straight and six of the last seven for the Aggies, who dropped eight straight league games between mid-January and mid-February before rallying to resurrect their at-large hopes. Diarra also hit a game-winner with under a second left to go in double-overtime of a win over Abilene Christian in November. 

Beating Auburn on Friday would be a massive boost to the Aggies' hopes of reaching the Big Dance. The Tigers won the only regular-season meeting between the teams 75-58 on Feb. 12 as the Aggies hit just 3 of 22 attempts from 3-point range. But that game was played at Auburn Arena before the Aggies found their late-season mojo.