Texas A&M
LONG ISLAND
Wright Scores 25 as Aggies Top Long Island
Jan 06, 2004 | Men's Basketball
January 06, 2004
Antoine Wright posted 25 points and 7 rebounds as Texas A&M rolled to an 89-63 victory over Long Island in its final non-conference game of the season.
Texas A&M (7-4) received a spark from Luis Clemente who scored 13 points off the bench in relief of center Andy Slocum, who overpowered the Blackbirds scoring 15 points and pulling in nine rebounds of his own.
Long Island (4-7) was led by Brandon Thomas and Raymond Edwards who scored 16 and 14 points respectively.
Wright bettered his season average of 14.3 points per game before halftime on Tuesday. Wright scored 18 points in the opening period, capped off by a 3-pointer with 3 seconds remaining to lead A&M out to a 44-27 lead at the break.
A&M got a boost at the free throw line where it made 23-of-24 attempts. Entering the game, the Aggies were shooting less than 70-percent at the line on the season.
The game marked A&M's fourth win in the past five games. A&M had lost three-straight in mid-December before getting back on track.
Saturday, the Aggies kick off the Big 12 season at Missouri while Long Island resumes Northeast Conference play at Robert Morris.
Postgame Quotes
TEXAS A&M HEAD COACH MELVIN WATKINS: "There was a lot of good play from our guys. I was very pleased with that. We tend to play to the competition but tonight we stayed focused on what we wanted to do. This is another game that gives our kids some confidence. We did a much better job of distributing the basketball. We tell our team they have to earn minutes. Antoine Wright is playing well. As we move to conference, it becomes a different ballgame. We have been preaching about coming out and finishing games. At halftime, we talked about coming out and finishing this game. We will get tested early against Missouri on the road (on Saturday). We will find out a lot about ourselves. Hopefully, it will be positive."
TEXAS A&M CENTER ANDY SLOCUM: "It is good that we got everything going as we head into Missouri. We played more team-oriented basketball tonight. We did a good job with the ball tonight."
TEXAS A&M SOPHOMORE ANTOINE WRIGHT: "Slump? I never had a slump. I missed a couple of shots, that's all. I was just thinking too much. It was good to have the break and get my feet right on my shots. I got more comfortable shooting and got my confidence. When you have a great attitude, you come out focused and have great games. We have been having great practices. Making free throws is a big part of winning games in our conference. Every team comes to play. There is never a night off. If we keep practicing like we've been practicing then we will be alright."
LONG ISLAND HEAD COACH JIM FERRY: "I saw a team (Texas A&M) that is focused on the Big 12 Conference. This was the most complete game they have played. We hoped to catch them when they weren't at their best. I saw a significantly different Antoine Wright to start the game. We start four new kids and three of them are freshman. Coming into an environment like this we got overwhelmed with their size and aggressiveness."
Postgame Notes
- The Aggies made 23-of-24 free throws (.958), setting a new Big 12 Conference record for free throw percentage in a game. The old mark was .957 (22-of-23) by Oklahoma State at Texas Tech in 1997-98 and tied by Kansas at Princeton in 1999-00. A&M's performance ranks as second best in school history behind the record of 1.000 (15-of-15) against Oklahoma State in 1988-89.
- In the last two games, A&M has posted a +21.5 rebounding margin.
- Antoine Wright has averaged 22.8 points in the last four games.
- A&M has held four of its last five opponents to 70 or fewer points and less than 43.0 percent accuracy from the field.
- A&M had 24 assists and 10 turnovers, its fifth game with more than 20 assists. A&M had 28 turnovers last Saturday at Louisiana-Monroe.
