Texas A&M
Missouri
Missouri Eliminates A&M from Big 12 Tournament, 77-62
Mar 08, 2001 | Men's Basketball
March 08, 2001
Clarence Gilbert insisted he wasn't out to show up the voters who left him off the All-Big 12 Conference team.
He did show up the Texas A&M defense, though.
``This wasn't a game about me showing that I should have made this, should have made that,'' Gilbert said Thursday night, after tying a school record with eight 3-pointers and scoring 30 points in a 77-62 win over the Aggies in the first round of the Big 12 tournament. ``This was about Missouri basketball, doing what's right for the team, and I think I did that.''
Gilbert's eight 3-pointers were the second-most ever in a Big 12 tournament game. Colorado's Kenny Price hit nine against Texas in the 1999 tournament. John Woods set the Missouri school record against Alabama-Birmingham in the 1998 National Invitation Tournament.
``I think he shot a thousand shots today,'' Aggies forward Nick Anderson said. ``He was hitting from everywhere.''
Actually, Gilbert was 8-for-11 overall from 3-point range.
``I knew when I took that first shot,'' he said. ``I stepped off a little and hit the three, and I just said to myself, 'It's going to be one of those nights.'''
Kareem Rush, in his second game back since undergoing surgery to repair a damaged ligament in his left thumb, was 4-for-6 on 3-point tries and added 16 points for the sixth-seeded Tigers.
``Part of it's repetition, just getting used to taking shots again,'' Rush said. ``I was kind of nervous when I came out and shot an air ball the first time, but I stuck with it.''
Missouri had more 3-pointers (14-for-19) than 2-pointers (11-for-29) as a team. Center Arthur Johnson finished with 11 points and a team-high eight rebounds.
The Tigers' 74-percent shooting from long range shattered their own previous tournament record of 62 percent (5-for-8), set in 1997, and the 14 3-pointers tied Colorado's record against Texas in 1999.
The only record that really matters, though, is 19-11...their win-loss mark heading into Friday night's quarterfinal against third-seeded Oklahoma. That should be good enough to get the Tigers into the NCAA tournament even if they lose to the Sooners, coach Quin Snyder said.
``I like to think that we were in before, but you never know,'' Snyder said. ``You get into these conference tournaments, and suddenly it's not that your playing yourself out of it, it's that other people are playing their way in. Hopefully, we've eliminated that question.''
The 11th-seeded Aggies (10-20) led 2-0 on Bernard King's basket 31 seconds into the game, but Gilbert hit two 3-pointers as Missouri went on a 16-0 run over the next six minutes.
A 9-0 run by A&M cut the Tigers' lead to 21-15 with eight minutes left in the half, but Rush hit two 3-pointers in an 8-0 run for Missouri and the Aggies never got within single digits again.
The Tigers led by as many as 23 points several times in the second half.
Jamal Gilchrist hit all three of his 3-point tries and led Texas A&M with 19 points, 12 of those inside the final eight minutes. Anderson added a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds, and Keith Bean finished with 13 points.
