Texas A&M
ALABAMA A&M
Aggies Win Sixth Straight with 71-68 Victory over Alabama A&M
Dec 11, 2004 | Men's Basketball
December 11, 2004
Texas A&M freshman Dominique Kirk hit two free throws with eight seconds to play, and Alabama A&M's Obie Trotter missed a 3-pointer near the buzzer, as the Aggies escaped with a 71-68 win over the Bulldogs Saturday afternoon before 4,670 at Reed Arena.
The win was Texas A&M's sixth straight to open the season.
The Aggies led by six with just 20 seconds to play, but Alabama A&M scored five points in six seconds to cut Texas A&M's lead to just one before Kirk's free throws.
With the Aggies leading 69-63 and 20 seconds left, Chris Collins tipped in a rebound off a missed 3-pointer by Trotter to pull the Bulldogs (3-4) to within four. A quick Texas A&M turnover led to a successful trey by Trotter to cut the lead to one with eight seconds left.
The Bulldogs then fouled Kirk, who hit both free throws to lift the Aggies to the win.
Texas A&M led for all but eight seconds in the first half and took a six-point lead into the locker room, but Alabama A&M opened the second half with an 8-2 run to tie the game at 43 with 18 minutes to play.
The Aggies allowed another one-point Bulldog lead a few minutes later but regained the lead for good on an Acie Law trey with 14:04 to go.
Kirk led Texas A&M with 18 points while adding seven rebounds and a game-high four steals. Law added 13 points while freshman Joseph Jones scored eight and grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds.
Trotter paced Alabama A&M with 18 points, five assists and two steals on 7-of-13 shooting. Marcus Jones was the only other player in double figures with 12 points.
Texas A&M continues its 10-game homestand on Wednesday when the Aggies host Louisiana-Monroe at Reed Arena. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.
Postgame Quotes & Notes
Alabama A&M Coach Vann Pettaway:
"Every time we made a run they responded. I think that they are going to do well in the Big 12. I guess I'm just disappointed that we lost the basketball game when we had an opportunity to win. We got in foul trouble and we went to our freshman, Marcus Jones, and he kept us in the game. Our team plays with a lot of confidence when he's on the floor. So that's the difference between this year and last year. People are going to say we played them close, but I didn't come here to get a moral victory. I don't believe in those. We felt that if we applied enough pressure we could stay close, and we were close, but we didn't create enough turnovers. Coach Gillispie does an outstanding job. I was concerned about their high-powered offense, because they have been crushing people. We'll go back to the drawing board, and we'll work a little bit harder. Hopefully we'll be ready to play our next game."
Texas A&M Sophomore Acie Law:
"They just brought it to us. Maybe we overlooked them a little bit, but they just brought it to us. For them to come into our court and play us like that, it's definitely a wake up call."
Texas A&M Freshman Dominique Kirk:
"They really came to us. We just have to get tougher down the stretch, just gut it out. I don't think we handled the press very well. We go over it in practice every day, but their defense was just real good. We picked it up toward the end."
Texas A&M Coach Billy Gillispie:
"I would like to applaud Alabama A&M's effort. They played harder than us every single offensive and defensive possession. That's my fault. These guys have been doing every thing I've asked them to do, so apparently I haven't been asking them to do the right things. Dominique Kirk was outstanding today. He made a real bad decision at the end, but he bailed everybody out offensively, defensively, and leadership wise. He was as good as you could possibly be. You play like you preactice. Our practice has been okay, but not as good as it needs to be. We have to understand that you have to practice every single day. Today, we weren't successful; we just happened to win on the scoreboard. The team that was successful didn't end up winning on the scoreboard. There were some positive things. If we would have played a perfect game today we'd be 6-0, and if we played like we played today, we're still 6-0. We could only win one game today."
A&M Notes:
*The Aggies are 6-0 for the first time since 1980-81, when they started 7-0.
*Billy Gillispie's 6-0 start is the best by a first-year A&M coach since D.X. Bible went 6-0 in 1920-21. The only coach to start his A&M tenure 7-0 was Tubby Graves, who started 11-0 in 1915-16.
*A&M's six-game winning streak is its longest since 1985-86. The last A&M team wo win seven straight was in 1980-81.
*Today's three-point margin of victory was A&M's closest this season. The previous closest game was an 18-point win against Oakland (81-63).
*A&M has out-rebounded all six opponents this year. The Aggies entered today's game ranked ninth nationally and second in the Big 12 in rebounding margin (+13.2) and out-rebounded Alabama A&M, 43-27.
*18 of the Aggies' 22 field goals today were assisted. In the last three games, 71 of 86 field goals have been assisted (83%). For the season, 123 of the Aggies' 173 field goals have been assisted (71%).
*Freshman Dominique Kirk scored a career-high 18 points, with a career-best 7 rebounds and also added a career-high four steals. Kirk has scored in double figures in four of six games.
*Sophomore Acie Law scored 13 points, his fourth double-figure scoring game of the year.
*Freshman Joseph Jones scored eight points with 10 rebounds, the first time this season he's failed to score in double figures. It was Jones' third double-figure rebounding game.
*Junior Antoine scored just eight points (all in the second half) and added six rebounds, the first time this season he's failed to score in double figures.
