COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Shooting accuracy on the road has been a problem for South Carolina recently, though that didn't appear to the case on Saturday afternoon.

The 25th-ranked Gamecocks shot 52.6 percent from the field and drilled a dozen 3-point goals to post an 81-78 upset victory over No. 8 Texas A&M at Reed Arena.

Yet, despite their marksmanship the Gamecocks (20-3, 7-3) had to sweat out some tense final seconds to deal the Aggies (18-5, 7-3) their first loss at Reed Arena.

South Carolina, which held a 79-70 lead with 2:24 to play, staved off a late rally when Texas A&M's Alex Caruso was unable to execute an in-bounds pass and give the Aggies a final shot.

"What an adventure. It's hard to close out a team that's real good on the road," South Carolina coach Frank Martin said. "We got some empty possessions on offense. That's hard to overcome, but last defensive possessions helped us."

Still, the Gamecocks were more dangerous on the offensive end. Guard Sindarius Thornwell scored 25 points, forward Michael Carrera had 20 and forward Mindaugas Kacinas had 11 for the Gamecocks, who bounced back strong from a 69-56 loss at Georgia last Tuesday.

South Carolina shot just 31.6 percent in that loss.

"We haven't shot the ball well on the road in a while, probably since Auburn game in the first league game," Martin said. "We came out and made shots. I think that gave us some aggression."

It was a tough loss for the Aggies, who had a two-game lead in the SEC race just two weeks ago. They've now lost three straight in conference play.

"Our game plan was to guard the dribble and make them beat us from the arc," Texas A&M coach Billy Kennedy said. "To their credit they came in and seemed like every single one of them shot it and didn't hesitate.

"I would like to tell you we didn't play very well, but we shot the ball well. We had 12 3's, but we've got to do a better job defensively."

Texas A&M was led by Danuel House and Caruso, who both scored 16 points. Jalen Jones added 14 points despite missing almost half the game because of foul trouble.

Both teams matched shooting accuracy in a nip-and-tuck duel that featured 23 lead changes and was tied five times.

South Carolina finally appeared to take control after P.J. Dozier broke a 70-70 tie with a 12-foot baseline jumper and Carrera followed with a 3-pointer.

Thornwell then hit a pair of baskets to give South Carolina a 79-70 lead with 2:16 left.

But A&M mounted a final rally and pulled within 80-78 when Caruso converted a three-point play with 20.6 seconds remaining.

Carrera then missed the first of two free throws with 16.6 seconds left to give the Aggies a chance to force overtime.

But House missed a deep 3-point attempt and the rebound went out of bounds to South Carolina.

However, Laimonas Chatkevicius threw away the in-bounds pass to give the Aggies another chance, but the Gamecocks deflected away Caruso's throw-in pass.

"We were trying to run Danuel and D.J. (Hogg) off screens," Kennedy said. "They put a big guy on the ball and did a good job taking away the vision. I didn't see the deflection. We had four 3-point shooters in the game. They did a good job defending it.

"We had made so many right plays to get in that position. We needed to make one more."

In past years the Gamecocks might have allowed their opponents to make that one more play.

But this is a different team with a different frame of mind.

"It was big for us because of the simple fact in previous years and this year we haven't been winning a lot of road games we should have," Thornwell said. "In past years this is kind of game blown and lost the lead. We've gotten better at holding the lead."

NOTES: South Carolina senior F Michael Carrera had posted double-doubles in each of the Gamecocks' three previous games. ... South Carolina entered the game against Texas A&M having been outrebounded just four times. ... The Gamecocks had lost three of their last four road games. The win in that stretch came in overtime at Ole Miss. ... Texas A&M is the only team South Carolina has faced this season that is currently ranked among the nation's Top 50 in RPI. ... The Aggies entered the game 3-0 against ranked teams and 13-0 at Reed Arena. ... The Aggies won 12 games at home by double figures. ... Freshman F Tyler Davis has shot at least 50 percent from the field in each of the previous five games, but averaged fewer than seven shots in that span. ... Opponents have combined to hit 42 three-pointers in A&M's first four losses.