To come from where they’d come, to be as close to what they were playing for, and to have it snatched away is representative of the cruelty of sports.

But falling short, getting to where they were — on the cusp of a winning season for the first time since 2000, in the hunt for the conference championship game — is still a story of accomplishment.

Alabama A&M put together touchdown drives of 81, 80 and 67 yards in the fourth quarter, scoring the final 21 points of the game, to stun TSU Saturday afternoon.

The 24-20 loss was a crushing blow to a team that showed so much fight this season, a turnaround season for the program and head coach Clarence McKinney.

Such hope and heart displayed before, yet such a brutal ending.

Bulldogs quarterback Xavier Lankford rambled 39 yards for the game-winning score on fourth-and-1, crushing the Tigers’ hopes for a winning season and a trip to the SWAC Championship Game.

The Tigers entered Saturday’s contest with an outside chance of winning the West Division to earn a berth in the title game against Jackson State on Dec. 3 in Jackson, Ms.

Getting anywhere near that trophy is an achievement for the Tigers.

TSU has won only one SWAC title since 1968. Worse yet, that one officially never happened, as it was erased by NCAA sanctions. So, as fun as the 2010 run was at the time, it is a net negative on the school’s athletics department.

The road to respectability has been a long one.

For the program and McKinney.

The Houston native and Yates High grad took over at TSU in 2019, after the Tigers suffered through back-to-back 2-9 seasons under Michael Haywood.

In an emotional press conference announcing his hiring, McKinney vowed to do everything in his power to bring a championship to TSU.

Finally, we can see that coming to life. A noted recruiter, McKinney has had success with local players that previously TSU had been unable to lure to the Third Ward campus.

From all corners of the city, he has players on the yard who are proud to be Tigers.

He started with so little.

TSU was winless in McKinney’s first season. The next year, his efforts were derailed by the global pandemic.

The 2020 fall season was canceled due to COVID-19. The SWAC rescheduled conference games to the spring of 2021, but TSU played only two contests and lost them both.

They picked up a victory over Alcorn State via forfeit.

McKinney coached for almost three years before earning his first win on the field, a romp over North American University. The Tigers finished with three wins and a 2-6 mark in SWAC play last year, but were more competitive than their record would indicate.

Depth was an issue as TSU struggled to close out games.

Alcorn State scored 17 fourth-quarter points in a 17-point win, and Jackson State did even better, with 20 points in the fourth in a 20-point victory. Alabama A&M scored two touchdowns in the final seven minutes to steal a three-point win in Houston, and Alabama State scored late to beat the Tigers by three points as well.

This year’s Tigers have been tougher.

Their 5-5 record meant a win would give them their first winning season in 22 years. With Mississippi Valley State’s win over Prairie View, a game that wrapped up while TSU and Alabama A&M were in the fourth quarter

A few minutes before TSU’s Andrew Body found Randy Masters on a quick slant and the freshman from Yates raced into the end zone for a 39-yard touchdown and a 20-3 Tigers’ lead.

If the Tigers thought they could coast home with the victory at this point, they were mistaken.

With seven minutes left in the game, Body was sprinting toward a sure touchdown. Just as he was about to dive into the end zone, Dre Terry knocked out of his hand, and it was recovered by the Bulldogs in the end zone.

Barely a minute later, Alabama A&M cut the TSU lead to three points with a 34-yard touchdown pass from Lankford to Cameron Young. On the next possession, Lankford went to work again, leading the game-winning drive.

There would be no road team celebration.

No winning season.        

No conference championship game against Deion Sanders and Jackson State, the most hyped HBCU program this century.

The Tigers and McKinney left with disappointment in defeat.

Their loss on the scoreboard comes with a victory in knowing how close they were to so much more.

Wait ‘til next year?

Sure. But let’s applaud this one for the steps taken. Even if they came up a little short.