The one who will likely fill Cummard's spot is Hartsock, who had a great game against Texas A&M in 26 minutes off the bench. He scored 10 points, grabbed four rebounds and blocked a shot. He made 4-of-5 shots and 2-of-3 from the charity stripe. "It's exciting for me to come out here and play in this tournament," Hartsock said from Wachovia Center locker room following Thursday's loss. "I felt good out there and today I just felt a little more comfortable in my role."

Even Texas A&M coach Mark Turgeon was impressed. "He played very well. He's going to be a good player," Turgeon said. Hartsock joined the Cougars this season only a couple of months off his LDS Church mission. He now has several months ahead to fine tune his game.

"I'm looking forward to the summer and looking forward to next year's team," he said.

NOTES: Cummard, with 17 points on Thursday, became the seventh player in BYU history to score 1,500 points and grab 600-plus rebounds. He finishes No. 9 in program history with 1,569 career points, surpassing Kenneth Roberts (1996) in his final game. Cummard also finished sixth in career steals with 129. "Just on my time here, it's been a great experience," Cummard said in Thursday's post-game interview. "Had a lot of success. You know, when the time comes, when this game is put behind me, it will be a much better time to reflect on my time here." ... BYU is now 1-6 as the No. 8 Seed in the NCAA Tournament ... Tavernari surpassed Elwood Romney (1933 with 1,150) and Kari Liimo (1969 with 1,156) for 25th on the program's career scoring list with 1,157 points ... the Cougars shot better from the three-point line (43 percent) than the field in general (39 percent) and missed 13 buckets inside the key in the first half against the Aggies ... Texas A&M, which led by 18 in eight minutes, made its first 10 shots with the first missed field goal coming at the 12:01 mark after tipoff. BYU had 11 steals in the game, led by Fredette with four.

E-mail: jimr@desnews.com