LSU continued its historic death spiral as one of the worst men’s basketball teams in school history.

The toothless Tigers first-half stretch of missing 11 straight shots and going without a field goal for more than nine minutes gave visiting Texas A&M enough cushion for a 74-62 SEC victory in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

It was LSU’s (12-13, 1-11 SEC) 12th straight loss, tying the school record for the third longest losing streak. It also marked the first time the Tigers have been below .500 since the end of the 2016-17 season when they lost a school-record 15 straight games leading to the firing of head coach Johnny Jones.

A&M (18-7, 10-2 SEC), winning for the 12th time its last 14 games and sweeping LSU for the first time since 2016-17, led 41-17 at halftime after leading by as many as 29 points.

"The first half was incredibly disappointing," LSU first-year head coach Matt McMahon said. "I just don't understand not coming out ready to play. We had some (offensive) looks early, we did not convert on those and it impacted our defensive energy intensity and attention to the game plan. We were unable to get stops and then it just snowballed.

"I appreciate the fans who stayed for the second half. I would have ;left at halftime."

Even though LSU outscored A&M in the second half 45-33 and sliced the Aggies’ lead to just 8 points four times in the final 4:08, the Aggies held on because of its free throw advantage (26 of 32 compared to LSU’s 8 of 13).

The Tigers, who made just 6 of 23 field goals (26.1 percent) in the first half when they missed 11 of 14 3-pointers, opened the second half on an 11-3 run in the first 2½ minutes to quickly cut A&M’s lead to 14 points.

A&M, after hitting 6 of 9 3’s in the first half, restarted its offensive engines by showing why it ranks No. 1 nationally in free throws made (18.8 mpg) and No. 2 in free throw attempts (25.3 apg).

With LSU finally aggressively guarding the 3-point line, A&M’s answer was to drive the goal as much as possible, create body contact, draw fouls and get to the free throw line.

After LSU was whistled for 9 fouls in the first half, the Tigers equaled total in the second half with 6:54 left to play. Nine of A&M's last 11 points were free throws.

The Aggies connected on a season-high 50 percent (8 of 16) on their 3-pointers and committed a season-low seven turnovers.

"We were locked into what we were doing and we knew what they (LSU) were doing," A&M head coach Buzz Williams. "Even as they made adjustments to their plan, our guys were shifting and said `We need to do this.'"

A&M was led by guard Wade Taylor IV, who finished with 23 points after hitting 5 of 8 3-pointers. Dexter Dennis and Tyrece Radford, a pair of Baton Rouge area natives, added 13 and 12 points respectively.

LSU guard Adam Miller scored 15 of his team-leading 18 points in the second half. Freshman forward Tyrell Ward had 15 points.

"We didn't play 40 minutes, we played 20 minutes," Miller said of LSU's A.W.O.L first-half. "It's on the players, not really on the coaching staff. The players, including me, chose to play 20 minutes today."

The Tigers hit the SEC road to play at Georgia (15-10, 5-7). The Bulldogs broke a three-game losing streak Saturday with a 75-68 home win over Kentucky.