Texas A&M
CHICAGO STATE
Aggies Match Best Start in 45 Years with 90-70 Win over Cougars
Dec 19, 2004 | Men's Basketball
December 19, 2004
Five Texas A&M players scored in double figures, led by junior Antoine Wright's 20 points and 10 rebounds, as the Aggies are off to their best start in 45 years with a 90-70 win over Chicago State Sunday night before 4,589 fans at Reed Arena.
A&M (8-0) has won eight straight to open the season, equaling the start of the 1959-60 squad. The Cougars fell to 0-7 with the loss.
It took a strong second-half effort for the Aggies to earn the win. Leading by just one at the break, A&M almost doubled their halftime point total in the second half and shot nearly 60 percent from the floor in the final 20 minutes.
Texas A&M began to break open a tight game midway through the second half. Leading by eight with nine minutes to go, the Aggies went on a 16-4 run to put the game out of reach. Freshman Joseph Jones scored nine of his 15 points on the run.
Wright earned his third double-double of the season in the second half, scoring 17 of his 20 points and grabbing all 10 rebounds after the break.
Acie Law added 14 points, 7 assists and 7 rebounds, while Edjuan Green and Bobby Leach each scored 10. Dominique Kirk dished out a career-high 8 assists.
Wright's 10 boards was a game high, while Jones and Green added nine each. For the game the Aggies out-rebounded Chicago State 42-31 and 26-10 in the second half.
The Cougars were led by Tony Weedon's 18 points and 4 assists, while Kevin Jones, Jr. added 12.
The Aggies continue their 10-game homestand on Wednesday when they play host to Grambling. Tip-off at Reed Arena is set for 7 p.m.
Postgame Quotes & Notes
Chicago State Head Coach Kevin Jones:
"I thought our game plan was good. The last play in the first half was a dumb play. We should have taken one shot. Instead we gave the ball up, a guy took a long three and it turned into a four-point play for them going into the half. I've got a young team and I'm trying to teach them that when you play against a team with guys that are better than you are, you have to play smarter than they do. We did that in the first half, but in the second half we had some guys become very selfish and they did things on their own. That turned it into a 20-point loss. There is no way with the game plan we had and the way we played that that should have happened. But we'll learn from our mistakes. Our big guy, Akindele, is a sophomore and is very young mentally. Right now, he's really hurting our team because he cries and whines constantly. That's something we'll have to deal with internally. This gets us better for conference and that's the main goal this year -- to try to win the conference tournament. We depend on a couple of guys who played good for us last year, but right now they're not helping us at all. We're going to make some changes and hopefully these guys will do what I need them to do. A&M has a good team. It's hard to beat anyone on the road. We've played against a lot of good teams to prepare for this kind of game. We had a chance to win the game but we fell apart. We'll go back to the drawing board."
Texas A&M Junior Antoine Wright:
"It gives me a lot of confidence to know that I was able to bounce back from being in foul trouble in the first half. Coach told me to still be aggressive and not worry about the fouls. They're a good team and they were not going to go away. I knew I had to come out and provide some energy anyway I could. I think they're a very good team, especially off the dribble. They caused problems in the paint and got guys in foul trouble, like me. Guys on their team have unlimited range so you have to close out on them. We didn't get off to a very good start, but our defense carried us in the second half. We were really down after that Alabama A&M game. It's really not a good feeling going into a week like that and having to practice everyday knowing practice is going to be tough. We just have to come out ready to go. We got off to a slow start and we can't keep letting that happen. In the second half, if a couple of shots go their way early, it's a different ball game. Coach has been stressing that with a team like this, you have to play 30 seconds of defense. And if you don't want to play a minute of defense, you have to get the rebounds."
Texas A&M Freshman Joseph Jones:
"The last seven-footer I played against was in AAU ball. I had to step my game up to keep him off the boards and keep him from scoring points, but at the same time I had to do my job. It's just like if I'm in foul trouble they'd probably be coming after me, so I had to do the same thing. If they're in foul trouble I've got to get them out quick, go straight for their throat."
Texas A&M Coach Billy Gillispie: "They've got a good team and they were extremely hard to guard. They made plays. The thing we didn't do offensively was that we missed too many free throws and too many easy baskets. Everybody has good players and they have good players, too. They easily could have beaten us tonight. We got some defensive stops and started making our easy shots a little bit better in the second half and that's why we won. I just want our guys to play hard. If they play hard and it's not good enough, that's all right. It wasn't like we weren't playing hard. We've got a great deal of respect for everybody we play. People seem to feel like just because they are a school that's not from one of the so-called major conferences that you're supposed to sort of have a walk in the park and that's not the case. Let's get real -- we've got a long way to go. You look across college basketball and there's all kinds of upsets and we were lucky we didn't get beat today. If we would have, we would have been beaten by a very good team. I don't care if they hadn't won any games. Who is going to win at UCLA, at Illinois and at Minnesota? How many chances have they really had to win games? They've got a nice team. They played hard, we played hard, and we were lucky to win. Antoine played great in the first half, he just got in foul trouble. He's doing a lot of extra things. He was by far the most impressive rebounder in the game. He's getting better all the time. His defense was pretty good. He's improving, as they all are. He played very well."
A&M Notes
*A&M's 8-0 start is its best since the 1959-60 team started 10-0 and was ranked No. 8 nationally.
*The eight-game winning streak is the Aggies' longest since the 1979-80 team won nine straight.
*Billy Gillispie's 8-0 start is the second best by a first-year coach in A&M history behind Tubby Graves 11-0 start in 1915-16.
*Junior Antoine Wright scored 20 points and matched his season-high with 10 rebounds. He also added a season-high four assists. It was Wright's third double-double this season. He's missed two more by just one rebound.
*Five Aggies scored in double figures for the third time this season.
*A&M has out-rebounded all eight opponents this season. The Aggies out-rebounded Chicago State by a whopping 26-10 in the second half.
*The Aggies made 51.5 percent from the field, the sixth time they've made better than 50 percent this season.
*A&M committed a season-low 9 turnovers and had 26 assists.
*Chicago State scored 70 points and made 45.8 percent from the field, both season highs by an Aggie opponent.
*Freshman Joseph Jones scored a career-high 15 points and had nine rebounds.
*Junior Edjuan Green scored 10 points and tied his career-high with 9 rebounds.
*Sophomore Acie Law scored 14 points with a season-high 7 rebounds and added 7 assists with just one turnover.
*Freshman Dominique Kirk scored eight points and handed out a career-high 8 assists with only one turnover.
*Senior Bobby Leach scored a career-high 10 points. His previous high was 9 points against Alabama A&M early last season.
*A&M scored 57 points in the second half, its most in a half since it scored 60 against Louisiana-Monroe two years ago.
