Texas A&M
NEBRASKA
Aggies Fall Short in 83-77 Loss to Nebraska
Feb 11, 2004 | Men's Basketball
February 11, 2004
Nate Johnson hit four free throws in the final minute of play and scored 19 points to lead Nebraska to an 83-77 victory over Texas A&M.
Nebraska (13-7, 3-6 Big 12) only hit two field goals in the last 14 minutes of play, but hit 25-of-26 free throws over the same stretch to outlast A&M for the lead.
The two teams combined for 71 free throws and 55 fouls over the course of the game with 52 of those shots and 37 of the fouls occurring in the second half.
Texas A&M (7-13, 0-9) lost its ninth straight game. The Aggies were led by Jesse King's 18 points and seven rebounds.
A&M opened the game 0-of-6 from the field, allowing Nebraska to get out to an early 8-1 lead. Johnson scored eight points early in the half to build the NU lead, forcing A&M to play catch-up for the rest of half as Nebraska shot 52-percent from the field.
Back-to-back scores from Acie Law along with just three Nebraska points in the final five minutes of the first period opened the door for the Aggies. A last second shot by Bobby Leach gave A&M a 33-32 halftime edge, its first lead of the game.
The lead was shortlived as the Huskers' opened the second half on an 18-3 run to take a 50-36 lead.
Nebraska's fast start hit a road block midway through the second half, as the Cornhuskers could not get any open looks and kept heading to the line.
A&M trailed by as little as three with 1:04 remaining when Andrew Drevo left the game due to a bloody nose. Drevo had 18 points and 9 rebounds when he left the game, leaving A&M an opportunity to cut out the lead once and for all.
Nebraska hit all eight of its free throws in the final minute to hold on to the win.
Postgame Quotes
NEBRASKA HEAD COACH BARRY COLLIER: "We are operating on nine conference games now. Any road win in this league is great. Any team that comes in here that wins really has to overcome A&M's effort and rebounding. A&M is a great rebounding team and we found that out today. It was a very physical game. We weren't getting very many field goal attempts, so the free throws were the difference."
TEXAS A&M POINT GUARD ACIE LAW: "Every time we try to get a stop we always get a stupid foul. It's just attitude. They shot 50% and 37 free throws. We can't play defense like this and win. In the second half we have been coming out sluggish. We have to come out with more energy. We play hard but we always seem to dig a hole and climb back out. We need to come out with better intensity. Sometimes the hole is just too deep. There is always some little mistake when we are right there that just gets us. It is tough, very tough. I think we want to win, we practice like it, but we just can't stop anyone."
TEXAS A&M HEAD COACH MELVIN WATKINS: "Before the game I wrote some things on the board that I thought we need to avoid. We foul too much, we are not as well defensively as we should be, and our execution is going down. We are playing hard, but we have mental breakdowns where we turn the ball over and make mistakes. In the opening minutes of the second half we were making mistakes and got down so we made some substitutions. Once again, I thought our starters energy level was not what it should be. No one deserves to play if they don't play hard. I didn't think (Antoine Wright) was playing with the energy he needed to play with. Kevin Turner didn't play at all today for reasons I am not going to discuss. Guys have to understand you have to come in and play hard no matter who you are. They have to play hard and within the game plan. I looked out there at one point and we had three freshmen out there on the floor. It doesn't matter who is out there if they are playing hard. We are not over the hump. We are playing some of the younger kids, but we aren't there yet. We rebound the ball well, maybe the best in the conference, but we aren't making the plays down the stretch to get us over the hump."
Texas A&M Postgame Notes
- Antoine Wright played a career-low 15 minutes and scored just three points on 0-of-8 shooting.
- Andy Slocum had five rebounds, giving him 501 in his career. He becomes the 18th player in A&M history to reach 500.
- Leandro Garcia-Morales had a career-high eight rebounds. His previous best was six twice in his career. Morales finished with 14 points, his seventh double-figure scoring effort in eight Big 12 games.
- Jesse King scored 18 points and leads the team with 15 games scoring in double figures this season.
- Acie Law scored 15 points, a career-high for a Big 12 game. His overall high is 19 at Tennessee earlier this season. Law's six assists were also a career-best for a league game. In the last three games, Law has handed out 16 assists with only 5 turnovers.
- A&M out-rebounded Nebraska, 40-33. The Aggies have out-rebounded 17 of 20 opponents this season, including 12 straight. The Aggies came into the game ranked sixth nationally in offensive rebounds and tied their season high with 22, but scored just 16 second-chance points.
- Nebraska made 32-of-37 from the free throw line (86.5%), the best percentage by an A&M opponent this year. Three of A&M's last five opponents have made at least 32 free throws. A&M has had at least 22 fouls in five straight games.
- A&M had 17 fast break points, tying its season high (Alabama A&M).
- Nick Anderson was held scoreless for the first time since the Houston game on Dec. 27.
- All nine of A&M's conference losses have been decided by 12 points or fewer, with eight decided by single digits, and the Aggies have trailed by no more than 15 points in any game. Eight of the Aggies' conference games have been within four points at halftime, with A&M leading in three at intermission. The Aggies have led in the second half of seven of the nine league games.
