Several questions were asked of the SMU men's basketball team on Sunday, and it passed the test with an overtime win against Texas A&M in Arlington.

The Mustangs responded after their first loss of the season. They responded after trailing 10-2 five minutes into the game. They responded when Texas A&M took a lead late in regulation. And they responded, in a big way, in overtime.

"They're hard to play against," SMU head coach Andy Enfield said of A&M. "The game had a lot of runs and a lot of momentum changes. We were very fortunate to win but proud of our players to not give up after we got down in the last 30 seconds of regulation, tied it up, and played a great overtime period to win a big game for us."

SMU did it with defensive effort. A&M scored 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting and 5-of-5 from inside the 3-point line. The Mustangs only allowed 17 points on 4-of-26 shooting the rest of the half.

"We just had to play harder, play with more urgency defensively," Enfield said. "They had four layups to start the game, especially after the Vanderbilt game, where they scored so many points in the paint against us. After that, we did a terrific job defensively."

That gave SMU a 41-27 lead at halftime. The lead reached a game-high of 15 points with 16 minutes to play. That's when the Aggies made their comeback. 

The Mustangs held it off for a while, getting it back to 12 points with 6:33 to play. But A&M made a push and took its first lead since the opening minutes of the game with two minutes left. 

"We made some really, really silly turnovers," Enfield said. "Their pressure — they pressed the whole game — sped us up in crucial moments, and I think our guys lost their minds for a second, because they went on that big run, and we missed a couple easy shots, and then we turned it over a couple times. We've been leading the whole game, and now we're down four with under a minute left."

SMU trailed 77-73 and Texas A&M had the ball with 50 seconds to go. B.J. Edwards got a steal, was fouled and made both free throws. Then Jermaine O'Neal Jr. got a steal of his own, and Jaron Pierre Jr.'s layup tied the game, sending it to overtime.

Overtime belonged to the Mustangs. After scoring the final four points of regulation, SMU outscored the Aggies 16-3 in the overtime period.

"I would say that's definitely something we can build on, just us playing defense," Pierre said. "We've been going out sometimes getting hit first, so us hitting first is something we've got to keep going."

Nine of those overtime points belonged to Pierre, who finished with a game-high 35 points. He shot 62% from the floor, making 13 of his 21 attempts, including a team-high three 3-pointers.

"He was spectacular on offense with his shot making, shot creation, and that's what we needed," Enfield said of Pierre. "We lost three double-figure scorers off of last year's team, and we knew we needed some scoring, and he provides that. He was great (Sunday). He took good shots, for the most part, one or two tough ones, but he was 13-for-21 from the field. After the first couple in the first half, he shot over guys that he was capable of driving around or by, we had a conversation, and then he was really good at making plays for himself and his teammates in the second half and taking the right shot at the right time. He was great."

The game was the third of four straight against SEC competition. After an overtime win at Mississippi State, the Mustangs lost their first game of the season at Vanderbilt. 

SMU turned the loss into a learning opportunity and was determined not to dwell on it.

"I feel like we took a tough loss. We learned from the mistakes we had," Boopie Miller said. "We went and watched film, and I feel like we came out tougher than we did that game. But I feel like we need to put that game in the past and just keep moving forward."

Miller was a big part of the win, scoring 19 points, grabbing six rebounds and dishing out four assists. He was also a perfect 10-for-10 from the free throw line. The Mustangs also got a big game from Edwards, who flirted with a triple-double, finishing with nine points, nine rebounds and 11 assists to go with four steals.

"He fills the stat sheet up, and he's a big glue guy, whatever you want to call him," Enfield said of Edwards. "I just call him a really good basketball player. … B.J. helps us win games. That steal he had under 30 seconds, we're down four, that steal he had was incredible. He just does those things on a consistent basis, and that's why he was first team all-defense in the ACC last year and is expected to be this year."

Next up is another neutral-site contest against LSU in New Orleans on Saturday. It's a stretch that will prepare the Mustangs for what they will see once conference play begins in the new year.

"I think after these four games, it gives us great experience against four quality teams," Enfield said. "The SEC was the best conference in basketball last season, and we scheduled this purposely to try to compete with the best teams in the country, and guys are doing a good job so far. We have some things to clean up and become more efficient at, but that was the reason we scheduled four SEC teams in a row, to give us a chance to compete at that level, on a national level, and we're 2-1 right now. Hopefully we can go out and play well in New Orleans."