Texas A&M
BAYLOR
A&M Falls to Baylor in OT, 67-61
Feb 25, 2004 | Men's Basketball
February 25, 2004
Matt Sayman scored six of his 15 points in overtime to lead Baylor to a 67-61 victory over Texas A&M on Wednesday night.
A&M (7-17, 0-13 Big 12) led 57-55 when Antoine Wright was fouled with 23 seconds remaining in regulation. Wright missed the front end of a one-and-one.
Terrance Thomas threw up a wild shot in traffic for the Bears (8-18, 3-10) that bounced off both sides of the rim before dropping in. He also drew a foul, but missed the free throw.
Wrght was fouled again for A&M with three seconds remaining but missed both free throws this time, sending the game into overtime.
Baylor controlled overtime, going on a 10-2 run to start the extra period and holding the Aggies to just four points.
Baylor entered the game on a four-game losing streak, winless since defeating A&M 72-64 in Waco.
Harvey Thomas led the Bears with 17 points and Thomas scored 12.
Wright led Texas A&M with 18 points, but missed all three of his free throws down the stretch that could have broken a 12 game skid.
A&M led by as many as eight points twice in the second half, but turnovers and poor defense allowed Baylor back into it each time.
With six minutes remaining, Baylor's Tommy Swanson hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to one. A minute later, Corey Herring took an offensive rebound and drove to the basket for an uncontested layup, giving Baylor its first lead of the second half. Another easy layup by Herring capped a 13-3 run by Bears.
With 2:24 remaining Wright banked a 3-pointer off the glass to retake the lead, breaking a stretch of over six minutes without an A&M field goal.
Postgame Quotes & Notes
BAYLOR FORWARD TERRENCE THOMAS: (on bank shot late in regulation) "I saw R.T. Guinn nail a guy on the pick. I think God just blessed me on that shot. You practice trick shots but you can't be prepared for that. We did what we had to do and got the W."
BAYLOR GUARD MATT SAYMAN: "Terrence's play gave us confidence and energy going into overtime. God must have been behind the Bears tonight with our limited number of players. It feels good to finally come here and get a win. One of the A&M coaches told me that was a lucky shot and I said, 'sir, I don't think I could have made it again.' This is why we play the game. There were two teams playing hard and doing everything they could to get a win. (On Wright's missed free throws) It's always a tough place to be in. Antoine is a great player and he has a great future. He will do well."
BAYLOR COACH SCOTT DREW: "We knew something had to give tonight. Both teams played extremely hard. I thought it was a great game to coach in. It was great to watch if you were a fan. I'm really proud of our three seniors. It was their last chance to come down here and they wanted to make the most of it. I definitely liked how we celebrated at the end of this game, unlike the other road games. It was really nice.
(on A&M losing a lot of close games) "I know that gets tough over time, losing close games. It's a situation with us that we haven't been in all that many (close games). We need to take advantage of those. Any time you play, you're going to make mistakes, but we did a good job of not letting one (mistake) lead into two.
(on A&M maybe trying too hard) "Sometimes you want to win so bad it creates mistakes. I thought A&M had a great game plan. They played extremely hard."
TEXAS A&M COACH MELVIN WATKINS: "They made big plays in the end and we didn't. Once again, players have got to make plays. (on whether or not the players got tight at the end) They did tighten up. That's obvious. What do you do? If we hit the free throws down at the end, we get the win. We didn't play well, but at least we would have gotten the win. Then (the team) might have loosened up a bit. I thought once again we got little tired on the offensive end. Defensively, they started driving at us (in the second half), and we didn't take that challenge. The momentum really swung at that point. They were feeling it. We were just hoping that we were going to win. In this conference, you can't hope you're going to win. You've got to go out and get it done."
A&M Notes:
- Acie Law's 10 assists were a career high. His previous best was 9 against Grambling. His previous best in Big 12 was 7 against Oklahoma.
- Andy Slocum had 10 rebounds, his 11th double-figure rebounding game of the year and the 18th of his career.
- A&M is 1-14 this season when they commit at least 15 turnovers.
- A&M made just 8-of-17 from the line (.471), its worst percentage of the season. Against Long Island in the last non-conference game on Jan. 6, the Aggies set the Big 12 single game record for free throw accuracy, making .958 (23-of-24).
- Antoine Wright scored 18 points. He's averaged 17.5 in the last two games and made 5-of-10 from three-point range .
- Kevin Turner scored 12 points, his fourth double-figure game in his last five outings
