Texas A&M
(#18) OKLAHOMA
Aggies Fall to No. 18 OU, 70-54
Jan 18, 2005 | Men's Basketball
January 18, 2005
Drew Lavender scored a season-high 23 points and Oklahoma snapped Texas A&M's 11-game home winning streak with a 70-54 victory Tuesday night.
The 18th-ranked Sooners (14-2, 3-0 Big 12) have won eight straight and 12 of 13, keeping pace with No. 2 Kansas (13-0, 3-0) as the early leaders for the regular-season league crown.
Lawrence McKenzie sparked Oklahoma's game-closing 13-1 run with consecutive 3s and Lavender finished it by scoring seven straight points to help seal the victory.
A game after scoring a then-season high 20 at Baylor, the generously listed 5-foot-7 Lavender again powered Oklahoma's bruising offensive attack with floaters in the lane and timely 3s from all around the arc.
The Sooners' lightning-quick point guard was virtually unstoppable, forcing the Aggies (12-3, 1-3) to guard him with a group of defenders ranging from point guard Acie Law to 6-foot-7 forward Antoine Wright.
McKenzie, Terrell Everett and Kevin Bookout each scored 12 points for the Sooners, who shot 53 percent against the nation's top-rated defense for field-goal percentage -- A&M entered limiting opponents to just 35.2 percent shooting.
Wright led the Aggies with 24 points on 8-of-12 shooting, and was the only A&M player to score in double figures.
The Aggies have lost two straight and three of their past four -- all in the Big 12 -- after starting the season 11-0.
Postgame Quotes
Oklahoma Head Coach Kelvin Sampson: "We forget how young we are. Longar is a freshman, Godbold is a freshman, McKenzie is a sophomore, Lavender is a sophomore, Terrell and Taj are in their first year. They may be juniors, but they are in their first year. It's been a process for us. We've evolved into the team we are now. I think our schedule really helped us. Schedules can go both ways. I think Billy scheduled perfectly for his team. For us it helped to play Minnesota, Purdue, Conneticut, Washington, and Duke. We didn't play great. It appeared that we were struggling, but we were playing good teams. The Christmas holiday was good for us. It's important for every team to know how it is you want to win. Everybody wants to win, but that's not good enough. You have to have an identity and we're developing one. Billy (Gillispie) doubled down on the post. If you play Taj one-on-one, he's going to score a ton of points. Kevin will, too. If you double them down it doesn't mean that we can't score, it means they can't score. Jaison Williams can shoot. Lawrence can shoot. Drew is not a great shooter, but he can score points. Those guys had to step up and make shots. Our shooters had the confidence to step and make those shots. I told them in the huddle to have no fear. It is a basketball game. Sometimes there is a tendency for kids to put pressure on themselves, but it's just a game. What's the worst thing that can happen to us tonight? Lawrence McKenzie really needs to hear that. Smart kids tend to be analytical. They had a good game plan against us, but our guards are capable of stepping up and making shots. Let's give A&M some credit. That number 10, Chris Walker, I love that kid. I'm an old NAIA guy. I wasn't a big-timer. I can't relate to the Antoine Wrights of the world, but I can relate to the Chris Walkers. I like him. I like his hustle and spirit. He really helps this team. Forget his stats, I'm big on heart. He had a lot to do with the way Taj played tonight. He's tough."
Texas A&M Junior Antoine Wright: "(McKenzie) made some big shots. There's nothing you can say about that. He's been knocking down big shots all year. We knew he was a big shooter. That's just one of those plays we want back. That's how it goes sometimes. 7-of-10 from three in the second half is unacceptable. You have to give them credit for making them, but it was poor defense on our part. We never really got in a groove then when we did, they started knocking down those threes. At that point during the game, I don't think we were executing our offense. They were just tougher than us. They were playing those passing lanes really hard and they were pushing big Joe (Jones) up the lane a little bit. He's not used to that yet. They were just tougher than us tonight. I don't think that rebounding was a key in this game. They were making shots. We definitely need to work on moving our feet, especially our big guys. We're definitely going to bounce back. Practice intensity has to go up and I'm sure it will."
Texas A&M Head Coach Billy Gillispie: "We got a good whipping tonight by a really good team. They whipped us physically, mentally, and every which '-ly' there is. Give those guys credit. We tried hard, but we made too many mental errors against a physically superior team and we can't do that. Hopefully, it is a good learning experience for us. I'm proud of our guys, who kept trying. We just couldn't get over the hump. We got it down to four or something and they made two big three pointers and we never could get back after that. There was one guy that totally dominated the game tonight, in my opinion, and that was Drew Lavender. That was as dominating a performance as you can have. He got his team every single shot they wanted. I thought he was fantastic. We didn't guard him like we needed to. We needed to put more pressure on him, but we couldn't and we didn't. They all played really well, but he was the guy that made it happen."
A&M Notes:
*Tonight's attendance of 11,971 was the seventh largest in school history. A&M has had three of the top eight attendance marks in school history in the last three games.The student attendance of 7,162 was the most in school history.
*Oklahoma made 53.2 percent from the field, the best of the season against the Aggies, who cam into the game leading the nation in defensive field goal percentage. The Sooners also made 52.9 percent (9-of-17) from three-point range, the best against A&M this season.
*Oklahoma out-rebounded the Aggies, 70-54, becoming only the third team to beat A&M on the boards this season.
*Antoine Wright scored a season-high 24 points, the fourth highest scoring total of his career.
*Bobby Leach scored nine points, the third straight game he's scored nine or more.
*A&M held Oklahoma's top scorer, Taj Gray, to 0 points on 0-of-2 shooting.
*The loss ended A&M's 11-game home winning streak, the seventh longest in school history and the longest since the Aggies won 16 straight from 1978-81.
*A&M has trailed by double digits in just three games this season.
*A&M has made just 5-of-25 (.200) from three-point range in the last two games.
