Texas A&M
OKLAHOMA STATE
Aggie Men's Hoops Drops Big 12 Opener 76-93 to Oklahoma State
Jan 11, 2003 | Men's Basketball
January 11, 2003
Tony Allen's Big 12 debut was just what the Oklahoma State Cowboys needed. The junior transfer posted a season high 29 points and nine rebounds to lead OSU to a 93-76 victory over Texas A&M in its Big 12 opener.
Allen hit four three-pointers in the first half to help keep the hot-shooting Aggies in check. In the second half he teamed up with Melvin Sanders and Cheyne Gadson to take the lead and run away with the game in the final 13 minutes.
"If (Allen) continues playing the way he has, he will average in the high teens," OSU coach Eddie Sutton said. "I see no reason why he won't. He has the complete game as far as being able to shoot the trey. He's a great dribble penetrator. He gets a basket every so often on the offensive boards because he attacks the glass."
It was Allen's third straight game to score over 20 points while leading the Cowboys.
Oklahoma State (12-1, 1-0 Big 12) got its 10th straight win, while getting double digit scoring from five players. Gadson had 17 points off the bench as the Cowboys shot 54-percent for the game.
Texas A&M (8-4, 0-1) shot a red hot 59-percent in the first half, but hit just one of 14 from 3-point range in the second half while struggling against OSU's pressure defense. Bernard King led the Aggies with a season high 27 points.
The Aggies jumped out to the early lead with hot first half shooting from King and Kevin Turner and led for over 13 minutes.
Turner entered the game eight minutes in and drained his first four shots, capping off a 10-3 A&M run with a pair of three-pointers. He finished with 13 points.
King followed it up with a drive to the hoop to give the Aggies a 39-30 lead with 3:35 remaining. The Aggies would not hit another field goal in the half.
But a 7-0 OSU run in the final minute of the second half reeled in the Aggies lead to 41-40 at by halftime.
"That was real big. It really got us back in the game," Sutton said. "I told them at half that they'd taken their best shot and you survived. If you tighten up your defense a little bit then you'll stay in the game."
OSU's Victor William's drained a trey two minutes into the second half to give the Cowboys a 45-44 edge, their first lead in over 13 minutes of play.
"As good of a defensive team as we are, we knew they wouldn't shoot like that on us the entire game," Williams said. "We knew they'd played their best basketball and now it was time for us to play ours."
Sanders got hot in the second half and Allen kept draining his shots. Sanders hit a jumper at the 13:14 mark to give the Cowboys a 53-51 lead. OSU would never trail again as Sanders hit his next two shots and Allen hit his next four.
Ivan McFarlin got in on the action turning a 3-point play with 7:51 remaining to give OSU a 68-57 advantage. McFarlin fouled King 35 seconds later for his fifth foul. He finished with 11 points.
Meanwhile, the Aggies shooting struggled against the Cowboys renewed defensive pressure. Freshman Antoine Wright scored 12 of his 15 in the second half for A&M. King added 16 second half points while hitting eight of 10 from the free throw line.
"In the first half our defense we'd been so proud of, they really dismantled," Sutton said. "In the second half our defense was much better.
The Cowboys lead grew to 14 as Gadson came off the bench and scored six of OSU's next eight to take a 79-65 lead.
"Our defense was not as energetic in the second half," A&M coach Melvin Watkins said. "We did not play with the same intensity in the second half."
Williams iced the game with seven of eight shooting from the line in the final 2:11.Williams finished with 14 points including nine points at the charity stripe.
The Cowboys as a team missed just one of 12 free throws in the same stretch to run away with the 93-76 win.
The Aggies, who hit six of seven from three-point range in the first half, could not find an open shot against Oklahoma State's pressure defense. A&M shot just 34-percent in the final period.
Postgame Quotes
Texas A&M Head Coach Melvin Watkins:
"Oklahoma State has a very good basketball team. They are very physical. You can tell them (A&M players) what Oklahoma State's pressure is going to be like, but until they see it, they don't understand. When we got the lead early, we knew the game wasn't over. The pressure they put on us affected our execution. The layoff didn't affect us as much as their execution. We actually have gotten better in the layoff in a few areas. Our defense was not as energetic in the second half. They put some bodies on us and they have an advantage on us in that area. I would have liked to have switched more on defense, but we were sliding slow and that made us play a lot more man than we wanted. It was more of what we were doing than what they were doing. We stopped playing good defense at the end of the first half and that carried over into the second half. That can't happen, but it did. This is just one game in conference. We slipped up at home, but there is a lot of basketball to be played and we're going to be in the mix. This team isn't going to quit. We will bounce back and get that next one on the road (Wednesday at Nebraska). This group of guys will respond better than any of the other teams I've had. It was different in the locker room after the game than it has ever been. I felt like they understood what I was saying after the game. We'll look at the tape and see our breakdowns. We're going to get better."
Texas A&M Forward Antoine Wright:
"It is very disappointing. We had a good chance to win the game. We'll take some good from the first half and take it into our next game. It comes down to us coming out flat in the second half. The bounce wasn't there. We went into halftime feeling pretty confident, but we didn't come out and execute in the second half. It comes down to being active. We knew (Allen) was heating up. We have to stop being tentative. We need to have active hands and feet."
Oklahoma State Head Coach Eddie Sutton:
"I thought we beat a good ball club. This is the best team A&M has had since the Big 12 started. They dismantled our defense in the first half. They used a lot of different defenses and our guys did a nice job of reading them and getting open shots. The game was a lot closer than the final score indicates. In the first half, we shot more treys than we shots inside the three-point line and that's not our game. We told them to get the ball inside and if they double down, then we could pop it out and shoot the trey. In the first half, we were content to pass it around the perimeter and shoot. (On Tony Allen) He has impressed our coaching staff with how quickly he has adjusted to Division I basketball. He is a better player than we ever expected him to be. He can shoot, he can penetrate, he can get offensive rebounds and he has a good mid-range shot. We knew he was a good defender from junior college, but we didn't know he could shoot the way he has and how intense he is. That has impressed us the most. He's a really good basketball player."
Oklahoma State Guard Victor Williams:
"It was a confidence booster to us to know we didn't play well but were only down by one at the half. In the second half, we were dedicated to executing our offense and defense and winning the game. The trick defense caught us off guard in the first half, but we corrected that at halftime and executed. They shot 68 percent the first half and we knew they wouldn't do that the whole game. We knew they played their best basketball in the first half, so we had to play our best in the second half."
Oklahoma State Guard Cheyne Gadson:
A&M is a much better team this year. They shoot the ball better and they do a good job of playing within their team concept. This is a good win for us. I think they'll be a top contender in the Big 12."
NOTES:
Tonight's attendance of 7,822 was the seventh largest in Reed Arena history.
