If the SEC regular season was a hard-fought battle of attrition that often resembled the trench play the nation watches on fall Saturdays, Thursday’s SEC Tournament matchup between the No. 13 seed Texas Longhorns and the No. 5 seed Texas A&M Aggies served as a microcosm with nine ties, 17 lead changes, and 52 fouls called at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville before head coach Rodney Terry’s team prevailed with a 94-89 victory in double overtime.

“The team effort was amazing,” Texas freshman guard Tre Johnson said after the game. “Everybody fought for both overtimes, the whole 40 minutes. It was just amazing seeing everyone out there fighting, even though we were tired and had guys in foul trouble the whole game.”

In the second overtime, Texas junior guard Jordan Pope made two of the biggest plays, driving left and then wrapping and ripping an impossible pass out to freshman guard Tre Johnson well beyond the three-point arc. Johnson buried it to take a two-point lead with 2:08 remaining.

After Texas A&M had three chances to score thanks to two offensive rebounds on the ensuing possession, Texas got the stop it needed and responded with a jumper from Pope that hit the rim, the backboard, and then trickled in to extend the lead to four points for the Longhorns with 1:06 left in double overtime.

The nation’s best offensive rebounding team secured another carom off their own miss, but only converted one of two free throws after a foul by Texas to avoid an easy basket around the rim.

Senior guard Julian Larry split his own trip on the other end and the Aggies got within one point on a made three with 24 seconds left, but Pope and senior forward Kadin Shedrick combined to slam the door on A&M with four made free throws in the final seconds to secure the victory and a Friday matchup against the No. 4 seed Tennessee Volunteers in Game 10. After Game 9 tips at noon Central, the second game will start 25 minutes after the end of the first.

“We knew what we had to do coming into this game, and we got it done. I’m just so proud of our team,” Texas senior wing Tramon Mark said.

How big was the win for the Longhorns?

The expectation was that Texas needed at least two wins in the SEC Tournament to make the NCAA Tournament. With those two wins, Joe Lunardi now has the Horns as the last team in his field ahead of the Hoosiers, which lost their Big Ten Tournament opener against the Ducks and have three fewer Quad 1 victories.

“We haven’t been healthy all year long,” Terry said of the team’s tournament resume. “Now we’re healthy. We have all of our guys and we have star power. We have guys that can step up and answer the bell and we’re an entertaining team to watch play.”

Texas had to survive Mark and junior guard Chendall Weaver fouling out and Texas A&M had three of its own players foul out in a whistle-heavy game that featured 71 combined free throws for the two teams, including 18 free-throw attempts by Aggies guard Wade Taylor IV, who drew enough fouls to disqualify two Longhorns by himself.

Since Texas A&M ranks 16th nationally in free-throw rate, that wasn’t necessarily a surprising development — more surprising for a team that entered the game shooting 31.1 percent from three were all the unlikely Aggies to connect from deep.

Foremost in that group was forward Andersson Garcia, a fifth-year senior who had 34 made threes in his career entering the game, but somehow managed to make all four of his attempts on Thursday, setting his career high and accounting for 10.5 percent of his career total and 22.2 percent of his season total against Texas.

Guard Manny Obaseki made three of his own despite only connecting on 11 triples this season and 44 in his four-year career.

The three that senior guard Jace Carter hit in double overtime was his 15th this year.

But all those unlikely threes weren’t enough to beat Texas, which received a strong floor game from Mark serving as the primary ball handler for the second straight game. Mark set his season high with five assists, including four in the first half, and added 15 points, two steals, and a block while playing some high-level defense late in the game despite having four fouls.

As the secondary ball handler, Johnson was effective, too, heating up in the second half to find senior forward Arthur Kaluma for an alley-oop slam, making a cut to the rim for a layup, making a pass down the baseline to Weaver for a three, and hitting a three in transition when Weaver pushed the pace after a rebound, allowing the Horns to recover from a 13-3 run out of halftime for the Aggies. Johnson continued to perform at a high level, getting downhill to kiss in a bank shot and using a shot fake to slide step into a three, ultimately finishing with a team-high 20 points, including four of nine made threes by Texas, and four assists.

Pope added 13 points and eight critical rebounds to counter the offensive rebounding threat of the Aggies. In the first half, the Horns were able to control the defensive glass, only allowing three offensive rebounds and four-second chance points. It wasn’t sustainable, though, as A&M are up with 17 offensive rebounds in the second half and overtime periods, producing 22 second-chance points.

Texas was able to overcome those rebounds by notching a 32-20 edge in points in paint, attacking downhill throughout the game, executing an area of emphasis for Terry that has often gone lacking this season.

And the 10-of-10 effort by Shedrick at the line was clutch, too, as were the energy from Weaver and a solid effort by Kaluma, who had 12 points and seven rebounds.