Texas A&M
OKLAHOMA
Sooners Rally for 78-72 Win over Aggies
Feb 14, 2004 | Men's Basketball
February 14, 2004
Drew Lavender scored a career high 31 points, including nine in the final two minutes to lead Oklahoma to a 78-72 victory over Texas A&M Saturday.
With 1:50 remaining in the game and the Sooners trailing, Lavender missed the second of two free throws, but Oklahoma got three straight offensive rebounds followed by misses before Jabahri Brown took a fourth straight rebound and found Lavender outside the arc. The freshman point guard drained the 3-pointer to give Oklahoma a 72-70 lead.
Oklahoma (16-5, 6-4 Big 12) has won six of its last seven games, following its four game losing streak in early January. Jason Detrick and Lawrence McKenzie added 14 and 10 points respectively.
Texas A&M (7-14, 0-10) was led by Kevin Turner with 16 points. Turner, fresh off a one game suspension for violating team rules, came off the bench to spark the Aggies early in the first half.
Oklahoma led by as much as 10 points in the first half as the Sooners hit seven of their first 10 3-pointers, including 4-5 by Lavender.
A&M closed to within two with five minutes remaining in the second half and had a chance to tie the game with center Andy Slocum going to the free throw line. Slocum missed his second free throw and Jesse King pulled in an offensive rebound and put it right back up getting the basket and foul. He converted the free throw to give A&M its first lead of the game, 64-63.
Lavender scored all but four of OU's points in the final five minutes and eventually regained the lead for good with his 3-pointer.
The Sooners were out-rebounded 40-27, but in the final two minutes, the Sooners controlled the boards to a 7-1 advantage.
Postgame Quotes
TEXAS A&M HEAD COACH MELVIN WATKINS: "Our kids are laying their souls on the line for us. They're not quitting. They've got every reason to quit, but we come out every game thinking we're going to win. I'm proud of them for that. Once again, in the closing moments we're making mental mistakes, and we just don't get over the hump. Something good needs to happen to us so we can get that out of our heads. We had this game. But, good teams can get back in. If you give them any crack they'll take advantage of it and obviously Oklahoma took advantage of our mistakes. We've just got to catch a break. (on making lots of runs but OU always answering) Like I said, that's what good teams do. (Drew) Lavender had a heck of a day. I knew he was a good player but we surely didn't expect him to come in and play like he did today. You've got to give them credit. (getting the big rebound near the end) We've been good all year at that and of course we don't come up with it. Our guys were fighting for it. They (OU) just got the bounce to go their way a little more than we did. Those are learning experiences but are a little tough to take sometimes. My throat's sore (because) they've all been hard to swallow. The amazing thing about it is you've got to go in that locker room and look your kids in the face, and when they're working as hard as they are and they're not quitting... We had bunch of kids laying it on line today, but they came up short. That's the toughest thing. We'll get back to practice though and try to get their spirits up."
TEXAS A&M SENIOR GUARD KEVIN TURNER: "It just came down to getting a stop. We got one that we needed and came down and turned the ball over on offense. It's tough seeing this happen al season. We've been making mental mistakes late in the game all season. We lost track of (Drew) Lavender some and he hurt us by making big shots. I came out in this game wanting to step it up. I picked up where I left off in the Baylor game."
TEXAS A&M SENIOR CENTER ANDY SLOCUM: "The big play was the fast break when Acie (Law) passed me the ball and the guy got his hand on it and it went off my leg. I think if I could have made the shot, we would have won the game. Anytime you're up three with two minutes to play, you don't think you are going to lose the game. It's demoralizing when they hit the three to put them up by two, but we needed to come back and do something of our own. They didn't miss a whole lot of shots. We didn't get the stops that we needed at the end. They finished the game better than we did."
OKLAHOMA HEAD COACH KELVIN SAMPSON: "(on the play of Drew Lavender) We've been really patient with Drew this year, knowing that as the season goes on he'd get better. He's a typical freshman though--I mean a true freshman. This time last year he was in high school. He had the courage to take that shot and he stepped up and hit it. I don't think I've ever had a better performance by a freshman in my 21 years of coaching. Our kids hung in there today and there were a lot of times we were up nine or 10 and we just never held it. Our second and third shots hurt us and then we fouled too much. This is a really, really young team. They are having to learn on the fly. There's a reason why we've won 6 of our last 7 games, because these young kids have progressed and gotten better. They have learned from every loss. Of all the wins we've had this year, the game I'm most proud of is this one. When we got down 70-67, I found out more about our team and how big their hearts are today. Valentine's Day is a pretty good word for the way we played because we played with big hearts. (on why A&M's losing close games) A&M hit shots today. I can't explain it. I was talking about them last night. You just don't knw what it is. I tell people 'Don't judge us by statistics.' Statistically we should be 5-16, not 16-5. We're not one of those 'statistic' teams."
OKLAHOMA FRESHMAN GUARD DREW LAVENDER: "I wanted to get out there, play my game and play hard. Coach tells me that when I play hard is when I play my play well. When I don't play hard is when I don't play well. I think it's my best game this year, but I'm going to put this past me because we have a big game Monday (vs. Oklahoma State). It means a lot that Coach Sampson would say that this is the best performance by a freshman since he's been coaching. He's coached a lot of great players. The three put us up by two and we had confidence again. From then on out we had the lead."
Postgame Notes
- Oklahoma freshman Drew Lavender scored a career-high 31 points, making a career-best 6-of-10 from three-point range. His previous best was 23 against Jackson State. He's made more than two three-pointers in just one game, making 5-of- 8 against Connecticut.
- Oklahoma tied its season high with 12 three-pointers (12 vs. Iowa State), making 52.2% (12-of-23), its second best percentage of the season (.524 vs. Missouri). The Sooners made 49.1 percent from the field, its third best of the year (.509 vs. Missouri, .500 vs. Baylor).
- A&M senior Andy Slocum scored 10 points with 13 rebounds, his eighth double-double of the year, which ties him for the Big 12 lead with Colorado's David Harrison. Slocum has had four double-doubles in conference play, also tying him with Harrison for the league lead in Big 12 play. Slocum has had 10 double-figures rebounding games this year and 17 in his career. He has 514 career rebounds, 16th most in school history.
- A&M senior guard Kevin Turner scored 16 points, a career-high for a Big 12 game. His previous best in league play was 14 earlier this season at Missouri.
- A&M had five players score in double figures for the fifth time this season.
- A&M freshman Acie Law had seven assists and two turnovers. In the last four game, he's had 23 assists and only seven turnovers.
- A&M sophomore Antoine Wright scored 11 points, making 4-of-5 from the field, tied his season-high with five assists and posted a career-best four blocked shots (his previous best was three last year vs. Kansas). Wright made .800 from the field, his first game above 45.5 percent in conference play this season.
- Oklahoma outscored A&M in points off turnovers, 17-2. A&M had 16 turnovers to 11 by the Sooners.
- A&M out-rebounded Oklahoma, 40-27. The Aggies have out-rebounded 18 of 21 opponents, including 13 straight. A&M leads the Big 12 in rebounding margin in league play at +8.5 and also leads the league in offensive rebounds at 17.6 per game. The Aggies came into today's game ranked third nationally in overall offensive boards (16.6) and grabbed 17 today.
- The Aggies have had a second-half lead in seven of their 10 Big 12 losses. In addition, seven of the 10 league games have been within four points in the final two minutes. All 10 of A&M's conference games have been decided by 12 points or fewer with eight decided by single digits. Two of A&M's four non-conference losses also were decided in the final minute (A&M-Corpus Christi and Houston).
- A&M had a season-high six blocked shots (they had four in two previous games).
- A&M handed out 18 assists, its second most this season in league play (20 vs. Kansas). A&M came into the game ranked second in the Big 12 in conference games with 14.7 assists per game.
- A&M's Nick Anderson had 11 points with five rebounds after going scoreless against Nebraska. Anderson has scored in double figures in four of his last five games. He now has 797 career points and 436 career rebounds.
