Texas A&M
HOUSTON
11,000-Plus Watch Aggies Drop Houston, 93-80
Dec 29, 2004 | Men's Basketball
December 29, 2004
Acie Law had 25 points and nine assists and Joseph Jones added 23 points and 10 rebounds as Texas A&M beat Houston 93-80 Wednesday night before 11,200 fans at Reed Arena.
A&M is off to a 10-0 start under new coach Billy Gillispie, the Aggies' best start since the 1959-60 team also won its first 10.
The Aggies, who also got 19 points from Antoine Wright and 15 from Dominique Kirk, jumped to a 52-40 halftime lead on 59 percent shooting. They shot 50 percent for the game, led by Jones (8-of-10) and Law (6-of-11).
But Houston (8-5) kept things fairly close thanks to Lanny Smith, who scored 22 of his 26 points in the first half. Smith hit 4-of-9 3-pointers as the Cougars shot 38 percent from behind the arc. Ramon Dyer and Dwight Jones II added 14 apiece for Houston.
But the Cougars hit only 57 percent from the free throw line.
A&M outrebounded Houston 47-29, led by Jones and Chris Walker's nine rebounds.
POSTGAME QUOTES & NOTES
Texas A&M Junior Antoine Wright:
"Andre Owens is a great player. Last year he put up 41 on us and we know he's capable of doing that. This week in practice I tried to focus on him and learn what kind of moves he likes. When he was out there I tried to get him out of his rhythm a little bit because once he gets going he can go all night. I think it helped us later in the game that he hadn't gotten his shots earlier. The other guys on his team did a great job of moving the ball. We knew coming out tonight that we were going to have a decent crowd and be in a dogfight. It turned out that we had a better crowd than we expected and we just fed off of them. The season is only going to get a lot harder. It starts with this next game with Penn State. They're a good team and we know we have to go there, focus, and try to get a road win."
Texas A&M Sophomore Acie Law:
"We play together. That's what coach stresses in practice -- play hard, play smart and play together. I think everybody has just accepted that and bought into it. When we go out, we want to be unselfish and get everyone involved and things happen for us. Everybody says that our schedule is this or that, but each game we've played has prepared us for the rest of our season. Each game has lead to the next game. We were ready for Houston tonight."
Texas A&M Head Coach Billy Gillispie:
"It was a lot of fun tonight. I think both teams played extremely hard. There were a lot of mistakes both ways, but I don't think you'll see two teams competing hard any harder than those two did. I know Houston plays really hard and our guys were able to step up a level or two and compete with them. We played them last year when I was at UTEP and Owens is an outstanding player. It was just a situation where I think Antoine took it personally. He was here last year and he wanted to guard him. He has unbelievable respect for Andre. Antoine said he wanted to guard him and I think he did a great job because Owens is really a great player. He's going to make a lot of money playing basketball. When you don't let a guy catch it, someone else steps up and Lanny Smith killed us tonght. But he's an NBA guy too, in time. I don't think we did a great job team defense-wise. I thought we competed really hard, but we messed up on the ball screen too much. I give those guys a lot of credit because they're really hard to guard. We're very happy to win. We haven't taken a win for granted all year long and we won't because they're too hard to come by. Houston is a very tradition-rich program, and have unbelievable respect for them. Coach Penders has done a fantastic job in a short amount of time. They're definitely a post-season team. I said it before and I know even more so afterward. We just want to compete. If we practice hard enough and continue to get better and learn how to run half-court offense, we'll let the chips fall where they may. I wish we were still playing at home next time, especially after the way the crowd was tonight. That was a fantastic crowd. They made a big difference from the word 'go.' We want to fill it up every single time. We're going to play hard and I think if you come here win, lose or draw, you're going to enjoy watching our team compete. We'll make a million mistakes, but I think you'll like watching our team compete. We're not ready to go on the road. We wish we could play them all here."
A&M NOTES:
*A&M's 10-0 start is its best since the 1959-60 team also started 10-0. The last time A&M started 11-0 was in 1919-20, when the Aggies finished 19-0. The only other team to start 11-0 was in 1915-16.
*A&M's 10-game winning streak is its longest since 1959-60 and ties for the fourth longest in school history. The last 11-game winning streak was in 1921-22.
*Billy Gillispie is 10-0, the second best start by a first-year coach in scholl history. The best start was 11-0 by Tubby Graves in 1915-16.
*A&M has a 10-game home winning streak, tying for the seventh longest in school history and the longest since a 10-game streak over two seasons in 1984-86. The last time A&M had a longer streak was when it won 16 straight over three seasons in 1978-81.
*Tonight's attendance was 11,200, the fourth largest crowd in A&M history and the largest for a non-conference game. The last time A&M had a larger crowd was in 2002-03, when a record crowd of 12,633 attended the Texas game.
*Tom Penders-coached teams had won 11 straight against A&M (10 at Texas, 1 at George Washington). The last time A&M defeated a Penders' team was in 1994, when the Aggies beat Texas, 85-84, at G. Rollie White Coliseum.
*The win ended a four-game Houston winning streak in the series since a 73-68 Aggie victory in College Station in 1995.
*Acie Law scored a career-high 25 points with 9 assists. Law's previous high was 19 last year at Tennessee. Law has had five straight games in double figures.
*Law as 12-of-12 at the free throw line, tying for the fourth best performance in school history. The last time an A&M player had a better performance was Freddie Ricks, who made 15-of-15 against Stephen F. Austin in 1987-88.
*Joseph Jones scored a career-high 23 points with 10 rebounds, his third double-double. Jones's previous high was 19 in his last game against Grambling State. Jones has made 16-of-20 from the field in the last two games.
*Antoine Wright scored 19 points with 6 rebounds, just missing his fourth straight 20-point game.
*The last time A&M had two players scored 20 points in a game was early last season, when Wright (23) and Andy Slocum (21) did it against Prairie View A&M.
*Chris Walker had a career-high 9 rebounds.
*Marlon Pompey had a career-high 8 rebounds.
*Last year, A&M held just six opponents to less than 40 percent from the field. This year, A&M has held eight of 10 opponents under 40 percent.
*Last year, A&M shot better than 50 percent from the field in just three games. This year, the Aggies have shot better than 50 percent in eight of 10 games.
*A&M has scored at least 80 points in seven games after scoring more than 80 just eight times all of last season.
*A&M has scored at least 90 points in three straight games.
*A&M made 34-of-47 free throws tonight, tying for the fourth most makes and attempts in school history. The last time A&M had more in both categories was when it made 34-of-52 against Montana State in 1993-94.
*Houston had 32 personal fouls, tying for the ninth most by an opponent in school history. The last time an opponent had more was last season, when Grambling had 34.
*A&M came into the game leading the nation in assists with 21.8 per game and had 22 tonight.
*Dominique Kirk had 15 points, his second most. He had 18 against Alabama A&M. Kirk has scored in double figures in six games.
*Bobby Leach tied his season-high with five assists.
*A&M has out-rebounded all 10 opponents this season. A&M came into tonight's game leading the Big 12 and ranking among the top five nationally in rebounding margin at +12.2. The Aggies out-rebounded Houston, 47-29 (+18).
*After making just 56 percent from the free throw line the last five games, the Aggies made 72.3 percent tonight (34-47).
