Jacksonville , Fla. ? LSU calls the play “special,” and Darrel Mitchell ran it to perfection.

With the clock running out on his team’s hopes, the Tigers’ lone senior made a long three-pointer with 3.9 seconds remaining to give the Southeastern Conference regular-season champions a 58-57 victory over Texas A&M on Saturday in the second round of the Atlanta Regional.

“When he let it go, I just felt confident it was going in,” LSU coach John Brady said. “I call him the silent assassin because he doesn’t say much, but when it’s time to deliver, he can do that. He’s hit seven or eight of those in his career.”

“Special” is designed to either create a scoring opportunity for SEC player of the year Glen Davis or an open jumper for Mitchell, who took the biggest shot of his life after Texas A&M bit on a fake pick-and-roll, and 6-foot-10 defender Antanas Kavaliauskas switched off Davis to guard Mitchell.

The LSU guard took a couple of dribbles forward. When Kavaliauskas backed off, Mitchell launched a 22-footer to wipe out the 57-55 lead Texas A&M took on Acie Law’s jumper with 19 seconds left.

“It was really unexplainable. When I saw it go in, I saw we had a couple of seconds left, so I couldn’t get as emotional as I wanted to,” Mitchell said.

Texas A&M's Marlon Pompey, right, consoles Antanas Kavaliauskas after the Aggies' 58-57 loss to LSU. The Tigers advanced to the Sweet 16 with the victory Saturday in Jacksonville, Fla.

“It was our two best players involved in the last play of the game with the game on the line. That’s what I’m going with,” Brady added. “It worked this time. You could probably do it other times, and it may not work. But this particular case, we made a nice play.”

The victory sends fourth-seeded LSU (25-8) to the regional semifinals against top-seed Duke (32-3) on Thursday night.

Davis led LSU with 21 points, including a key basket in the final minute. Mitchell had 16.

The Tigers seemingly were in control when Mitchell made two foul shots for a 53-46 lead with 3:31 to go. But No. 12 seed Texas A&M (22-9), in the tournament for the first time since 1987, wasn’t ready to go home.

The Aggies wiped out the seven-point deficit over the next 91 seconds, then went ahead 55-53 on Joseph Jones’ jump hook in the lane.

“That’s how it’s been all year. Things ain’t always going to go well for us,” Law said. “Coach always tells us to stick with it, continue to fight, continue to fight. We played a bad game. We weren’t ourselves tonight, but we continued to fight.”

The 6-9, 310-pound Davis, nicknamed “Big Baby,” powered his way to the basket for a layup that tied it for the last time.

Duke 74, George Washington 61

Greensboro, N.C. – J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams had plenty of help this time. From the acrobatic dunks of Josh McRoberts to the heady play from guard Greg Paulus, Duke did just about everything right.

And now the top-seeded Blue Devils are headed to the round of 16 in the NCAA Tournament for the ninth straight season.

Redick had 20 points, Williams added 17 points and 14 rebounds, and the No. 1 overall seed easily disposed of George Washington in a gritty, foul-filled game.

Unlike the first-round victory over Southern University, when Duke’s two stars scored all but 12 of Duke’s 70 points, everyone who played, contributed.

McRoberts got his second double-double of the season with 14 points and a career-high 13 rebounds.