ANAHEIM, Calif. -- BYU officials scampered around the Honda Center late Thursday, hurriedly calling anyone that had to rush to the team hotel, get packed and hop a charter plane homebound.

Alas, the team that goes up, up and away until reaching the NCAA tournament has crashed again -- the sixth time since 1993 -- with a 67-62 loss.

"We're going to have to do a better job defending the shot," Lee Cummard said while coldly examining the post-game stat sheet. "Fifty-four percent (A&M) shooting, that's not going to get it done. Rebounding, we got out-rebounded by 12. That's not going to get it done. And shooting 44 percent is not going to get it done. So back to the drawing board."

As it did last year, after being a No. 8 seed and traveling across the country just to lose to Xavier on the first day of the NCAA tournament, BYU looked the part of a dejected team in a juxtaposition -- it didn't want to hang around the arena, but it sure didn't want to go home, either.

The tournament's press corps and CBS do their best to show the on-court drama. But nothing, really, can paint an astute picture of a quiet locker room of a team that just had its season finished.

Especially one that knows it let so many things go awry, in such unusual fashion.

Giving up the first 11 points? Not scoring for the first six minutes?

Those are November mistakes, inexperience mistakes, lack-of-confidence mistakes.

And the Cougars had no reason being in that mindframe with so much success preceding the chance to end an NCAA tournament drought.

"We didn't start the game with a lot of energy, playing flat, and we were rushing the shots and not taking ones we normally do," said Cummard, who had 14 points.

There's a period of time that players, either on the winning or losing team, are required to hang around the room for interviews. In the meantime, jerseys get collected, team members nibble on boxed meals and quiet permeates the room, except for those being asked to explain just what happened.

Those answers, if any can be surmised, come in whispers.

Players comforted each other with highlights, of which there are some to be quite proud of -- a second consecutive Mountain West Conference championship, the 27-8 final record.

"It's not going to make anybody feel much better right now, but I wanted those guys to leave the locker room just knowing, you know, how proud our staff is of what they've accomplished," BYU coach Dave Rose said.

Truth is, the NCAA tournament is as much (maybe more) about matchups as it is seeding. Give the Cougars a different 8-seed, like in Omaha playing against Kent State, and maybe it's Rose's team that is still alive -- and not UNLV, which got that draw and won its 8-9 game easily on Thursday.

The issues BYU faced against A&M were no surprise. The Aggies, the sixth-best team in the Big 12 Conference, are streak shooters. No one in the arena grew hotter than Josh Carter, who tied his career high with 26 points and hit three consecutive 3-pointers early.

They also love to use their size to rebound, compensating for bricked first attempts and getting easier baskets on the second try.

"I mean, they didn't end up with some numbers like they have in other games -- 18, 19, 21 offensive rebounds," Rose said of A&M's nine offensive rebounds (one more than his team). "But they got critical second shots that really helped them."

For all of BYU's struggles, the game was still tied at halftime and never swung from a four-point margin either way until the final minute.

BYU's most pleasant surprise, freshman Jimmer Fredette, hit a 3-pointer with a minute left to cut A&M's lead to three points. He finished with 10 points on 4-of-11 shooting, taking over for senior Ben Murdock, who was a mixture of hurt (still battling a sprained ankle suffered a few weeks ago) and ineffective against A&M's fast pressure.

Jonathan Tavernari (team-high 15 points) missed a hurried 3-point attempt, from way beyond the college line, with 1:15 left and a four-point deficit.

It was just like last year against Xavier -- futile, hurried possessions when they mattered most.

But the biggest possession led to A&M's biggest three points. Rose chose not to foul a suspect foul-shooting team, instead letting the Aggies run the clock in what was still a one-possession game in the final seconds.

Beau Muhlbach faked a 3-point attempt in the corner by his team's bench, slashed to the hoop and found Dominique Kirk for his second trey of the game, 66-60, with 25 seconds left.

His first long make came with 3:25 left, as he made it 57-53. Each time BYU scored from that point, the Aggies countered.

BYU's biggest lead was 29-26 with Tavernari's 3-pointer at the two-minute mark of the first half. But Carter countered with a trey, one that at least Rose was pleased because a hand was in his face.

A&M finished strong, started stronger -- and again, not coincidentally, BYU is one-and-done in the time of year it yearns to win so much.

"I think there are times (during the season) when we called early timeouts and really tried to jump on our guys and try to get them going," Rose said. "That wasn't the issue tonight. Tonight it was to try and get them in a situation were we ... weren't in a hurry.

"We were just trying to get our arms around them and ... when we did that, I thought we got ourselves back in the game."

But not beyond it.