Texas A&M
OAKLAND
Texas A&M Defeats Oakland in Final Minute, 71-65
Dec 02, 2002 | Men's Basketball
December 02, 2002
Bernard King converted on a 3-point play with 31.2 seconds to play, breaking a tie game and lifting Texas A&M to a 71-65 victory over Oakland Monday evening at Reed Arena.
Following an Aggie timeout, King drove through the paint and banked a shot off the glass and in as he took the foul. The senior connected on the ensuing free throw to put A&M up 67-64.
The Grizzlies' Mike Helms cut the Aggie lead to two 7 seconds later but missed the second of two free throws and the Aggies (3-1) got the board. A pair of Bradley Jackson free throws and an exclamation-point dunk by Jesse King III sealed the win.
Freshman Antoine Wright led Texas A&M with 21 points to go along with six assists and seven rebounds. Jesse King III scored 12 and Jackson added 10.
Helms led all scorers with 31 points while teammates John Floyd and Rawle Marshall added 11 and 10, respectively.
The Aggies went on a 9-0 run late in the first half to extend their lead to as much as 10, but the Grizzlies (2-2) scored the final six points of the frame and trailed by six heading into the break.
A&M's lead once again reached into double figures early in the second half when a pair of dunks following missed shots by Jesse King III put the Aggies up 39-28 with 18 minutes to go. Oakland came out of a 30-second timeout and whittled away at the A&M lead, taking their first lead of the half with 9:28 to go on a Helms jumper.
With the Grizzlies up six, Texas A&M scored six straight to take a 1-point lead with just over four minutes to play, and the teams traded leads until the final minute of play.
Oakland was plagued by poor free throw shooting all night, as the Grizzlies were just 52 percent from the line including eight second-half misses.
Texas A&M returns to action on Wednesday when the Aggies play host to Tennessee in the Volunteers' first-ever visit to College Station. Tipoff at Reed Arena is set for 7 p.m.
POSTGAME QUOTES
Texas A&M Guard Antoine Wright: "It was obvious they had one guy following me around throughout the second half. I came out and played well in the first half and they played me tougher in the second half, but I just had to relax and let things come to me. I just tried to stay calm. (On his mental process during the last defensive play) I knew the game was not over. They were just one shot away from getting right back in the game. I knew that I had to make a stop. We are not satisfied totally with tonight's victory. We know that we should have played much better tonight coming off the win against LSU. Tonight's close game will definitely help our confidence. In the future when in these situations, we will know that we need to just stay calm and slow things down.
Texas A&M forward Jesse King: (Difference of this year's team compared to last year's) "This group of guys is older and more mature. We know how to win. We have good older guys and freshman who are contributing. (On slam dunk on offensive rebound) It is a dream play. Plays like that get the team going, and I try to do things to get the team excited. We have to take the season one game at a time. We have to go get ready for the next game now that this one is over. (Beating a team from Michigan his home state) Now I can go home and stick my chest out a little bit."
Texas A&M head coach Melvin Watkins: "It's not pretty, but it's a win. It is very important to stay up after a big win (against LSU on Saturday). We are still building and this team has a lot of potential. I was not pleased with the way we played but the important thing is that we won. Last year in this game we would have lost by double digits. The players were kind of looking ahead and we can't do that, but when we had to, we made the plays. (On Bernard King getting the ball down the stretch) No doubt about it. We talked about it before hand and we definitely want Bernard to have the ball in his hands in those type of situations. Being a senior you expect him to make plays like that. Bernard will make a play, he may not shoot the ball, but he will make a play. We tell our guys to have their hands up and be ready because he'll send you a pass. (On Next game against Tennessee) I expect us to play better against Tennessee. We came out too relaxed tonight thinking that we were going to beat this team. You want your players to have that mentality but you don't want them to play relaxed. We aren't good enough to take days off. I expect us to play harder and smarter against Tennessee."
Oakland's head coach Greg Kampe: "We are very disappointed. We thought we had the classic upset going. This is our first time to play a Big 12 school. In the past we have upset a number of Big 10 schools. We started in the zone to stay out of foul trouble. As a young team playing a Big 12 school you expect your players to get excited and have trouble staying out of foul trouble. We stayed in the zone until A&M started to beat us up on the boards. We did what we had to do to get the upset, we just did not make our foul shots. It was all there, but a great player (Bernard King) made a great twisting, turning jump shot to win the game."
