After a nail-biting four quarters, it all came down to the last 44 seconds of the fourth quarter on Thursday night between Alabama women’s basketball and No. 15 Texas A&M.

Alabama clung to a late lead, but Texas A&M overtook the Crimson Tide and held on for a 79-74 victory, winning its ninth straight over Alabama (11-8 overall, 1-5 SEC).

“The most important thing in the world to me is that these kids know we’ve lost to No. 4, No. 12, No. 15 and No. 23,” coach Kristy Curry said. “We’ve had the toughest opening in the SEC. We can learn from that and we can continue to put these experiences into play because we have lost to some really good teams. Tonight was another really good team.”

The game was close throughout, resulting in four more ties and four lead changes. Alabama turned it up a notch in the second quarter and started to see a bigger lead, closing out the first half leading 36-32.

A 7-1 run in the third quarter put the Crimson Tide ahead by 10, but Texas A&M began to chip away. With 44 seconds remaining, Alabama led by two, but the Aggies won the fourth quarter by 10 points and was able to take the win, 79-74.

Where Alabama struggled was getting to the line, which was also a problem against Tennessee. Texas A&M was able to get to the line 32 times, while Alabama only shot 13 free throws.

The offense helped make up for the team’s defensive struggles. Alabama outscored the Aggies in bench points, 26-0, and in the paint, 34-26.

Redshirt junior guard Jordan Lewis and junior forward Jasmine Walker were a dynamic duo for the Alabama offense, combining for nearly half of the team’s points. Lewis scored 17 points and had seven assists, while Walker scored 18 with five rebounds.

Senior guard Cierra Johnson contributed 10 points off the bench and sophomore guard Megan Abrams who put down 11 points and grabbed seven rebounds.

Despite the loss after leading for most of the game, Curry remained upbeat.

“I thought we were able to the second half put ourselves in a position with our rebounding and to have 15 assists and only seven turnovers, we did a lot of really, really good things,” Curry said.