Texas A&M
MISSISSIPPI VALLEY STATE
Texas A&M 84, Mississippi Valley State 53
Nov 22, 2005 | Men's Basketball
November 22, 2005
Acie Law scored a career-high 30 points to lead Texas A&M to an 84-53 win over Mississippi Valley State Tuesday night before 4,886 fans at Reed Arena.
The junior guard hit 12-of-15 shots from the floor and was a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line. Law's previous high was 25 points in a win last season against HOuston.
Josh Carter and Joseph Jones each scored 15 for the Aggies (2-0) while Marlon Pompey added 12.
MVSU (0-3) put two players in double figures led by Stanford Speech's 16 points.
A&M hit 58.2 percent of its shots from the floor and scored 40 of its 84 points off 29 Delta Devil turnovers.
Texas A&M returns to action on Saturday at 7 p.m. when they face Tulane in a "Hurricane Katrina Relief" game at Reed Arena. The Aggies will be the visiting team and don maroon jerseys for the contest, with all proceeds from the game going to the Tulane Athletic Department.
Texas A&M Postgame Quotes
ACIE LAW: "Coach stressed in practice that he wanted us to come out early and be intense from the start. We wanted to pressure them as a team and jump out early. We played well defensively, but we had problems rebounding. I've got to give them a lot of credit. They played hard and they outrebounded us. That's something we have to improve on. The Big 12 is known for its physical play inside. It all starts in practice. Tonight was just one of those nights for me. I just take what the defense gives me and I don't put pressure on myself. We want to come out and improve as a team."
COACH GILLISPIE: "This was a good game for us I'm glad we won. We didn't finish well offensively, shooting too many three pointers in the last 12 minutes. We did a good job against the man-to-man defense. We're greatly improved on that since Sunday. I'm really happy to win and I hope we're getting better. Our defensive rebounding was terrible. They're hard to guard but we did a pretty good job getting pressure and bringing help. Our guys got better as the game went along. Acie's been good all year. Scoring 30 points for the first time in his college career is a nice milestone for him. He played well offensively and he played well defensively. He was in total control on offense. He did a really good job helping his team defensively. He's taking responisbility for what his team needs from him."
(On attendance) "My expectations are out of whack for A&M basketball. We need to get them back in whack in a hurry. It wasn't too long ago that the outlook here was pretty bleak. When I came here one of the first things I said is that we need to establish a home-court advantage. Our next step is to start having good home crowds in November and December and make it to where people don't even want to come play us here. You don't turn around a program in the Big 12 in one year or two years. You can't go from needing to get better to being great overnight. Our coaches are working extremely hard and the fans have a responsibility as well. With 44,000 students we have to have 10,000 fans here if they want to help our team win. We want fans to come see the home team and not just to see a good opponent. To have the program where we want it, we have to change our expectations. I'm not being critical because the fans that came were great. But we can and should do better."
