Despite an early lead, Florida Basketball goes cold and loses to Texas A&M

One of the things that continues to ring true in the world of sports is that winning a big game isn't the hardest thing to do, it's winning the next game after that game and Florida Basketball found that out the hard way on Saturday. Following their cathartic road against Kentucky, Todd Golden and crew were on the road against Texas A&M with a chance to keep the momentum rolling.

And while things looked great for the Gators early, Florida failed to score over the final three minutes and ultimately lost a game that could have solidified their NCAA Tournament hopes.

Florida Basketball: It's not how you start...

When Zyon Pullin knocked down a three pointer with 1:27 left in the first half, Florida Basketball took a 13 point lead and it looked like the Gators were going to pull away and ride that momentum into the second half.

Except the Aggies outscored Florida 7-0 to close out the remaining 87 seconds, and Florida went into the half with just a six-point lead.

Worse for the Gators, the scored 40 points in the first 18 minutes of the game and just 26 points over the remaining 22 minutes. Given Florida's worse offensive half of basketball this season, it's a minor miracle that Florida still had a lead with three minutes left when Pullin hit a jumper to make it 66-64 in favor of Florida.

Their final five possessions went as follows:

• Missed jumper
• Turnover
• Missed jumper
• Turnover
• Missed jumper, rebound, missed three pointer

Texas A&M didn't exactly take full advantage during this stretch, but Tyrece Radford, who wound up playing despite being arrested the day before for an incident in December, had 26 points and hit the game winning with 35 seconds left.

The loss has Florida currently as ESPN's Joe Lunardi's "First Team Out" on his Bracketology. The Gators will take the court next against Auburn at home on Saturday.