November 12, 2003
Sophomore forward Antoine Wright scored 20 points to lead the Texas A&M men's basketball team to a 98-82 exhibition win on Wednesday against Team ezybonds.
The Aggies went on a 12-1 run to take a 15-point lead with 8:27 left in the first half. A&M's lead would climb to 16 before the Aggies settled for a 47-37 halftime lead. Ezybonds closed to within seven points midway through the second half, but the Aggies held off the challenge.
Also scoring in double figures for the Aggies was true freshman guard Acie Law (13 points, 5 assists) and senior center Andy Slocum (11 points, 7 rebounds). Sophomore forward Luis Clemente added 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Team ezybonds was led by former TCU player Jamal Brown, who scored 32 points with 14 rebounds. Ezybonds attempted 34 of their 67 shots from three-point range, making 12 treys.
The Aggies play their final exhibition on Monday against the EA Sports All-Stars (7 p.m.) at Reed Arena before opening the regular season at home against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Nov. 24.
Postgame Quotes
TEXAS A&M SOPHOMORE FORWARD ANTOINE WRIGHT: "Coach experimented with different lineups tonight. We were looking for solid plays and execution. We're going to need our depth for conference play. I'd rate tonight's game as a C or C-minus. On the defensive end, we were not in tune. Some of the (newer) guys are just not ready yet. They had one guy (Jamal Brown) who beat us up all night. The defense has to come around as a team. We know we can score. It just comes down to defense. We need to make stops and make plays. The team chemistry started on our Italy tour. We have six seniors who know all the plays and our practices have been a lot more competitive than last year and are intense. We know we have a good team. Throughout the game, our attitude stayed positive. Last year at times our attitude would go down and guys would start blaming other guys. This year, we're more focused."
TEXAS A&M COACH MELVIN WATKINS: "This is about what you expect with an exhibition game. We got a good tape out of it and that will help us in practice. I was not pleased with our defensive intensity. We tried to play the passing lanes, but we took no charges. We didn't get a lot of support on the back side. I'm not worried about our scoring, but we need to defend. I liked our defense in spurts in the first half, but we went a little flat in the second. I like this team and I like our potential. We have a positive team attitude. I challenged our seniors a bit and I think they've responded and will get things right."