December 05, 2005
The Texas A&M men's basketball team will be looking for its fifth straight victory when it faces the North Texas Mean Green on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Reed Arena.
Tickets are available at the door and at www.12thmanfoundation.com. Aggie
Athletes Involved (AAI) will be collecting Toys for Tots at each Texas A&M
men?â„¢s and women?â„¢s basketball home game through Dec. 21. Fans who donate a
new or gently used toy will receive free admission to the game.
Both teams are coming off home victories on Saturday, with the Aggies (4-0) beating Penn State, 60-55, and North Texas downing Tennessee-Chattanooga, 83-76. A&M is 5-0 at home this season while the Mean Green is 0-2 on the road.
A&M leads the series, 11-6, but North Texas has won two of the last four meetings. The Aggies have won three straight against North Texas in College Station since a 72-69 UNT win in 1966-67. The teams last met in 2000-01, with A&M posting a 77-74 victory at Reed Arena.
?North Texas has a talented team with several players who could play in the Big 12," A&M Coach Billy Gillispie said. "They could very well be an NCAA Tournament team in March.?
A member of the Sun Belt Conference, North Texas is in its fifth season under Coach Johnny Jones, a standout player at LSU in the early 1980s who helped the Tigers to the 1981 Final Four. Jones was sophomore when No. 12-ranked LSU lost to A&M, 68-63, at G. Rollie White Coliseum in 1981-82.
North Texas is led by junior guard Kendrick Davis (6-4), who is averaging 16.8 points. Davis has scored at least 20 points in two straight games, including a 23-point effort in an 83-67 loss at Arizona State last Wednesday.
Sophomore guard Michael Sturns (6-4) is adding 15.0 points while senior centre Jeffrey Simpson (6-1) is contributing 11.8 points and a team-best 6.3 rebounds.
Junior Acie Law leads the Aggies with a 17.0 scoring average and leads the Big 12 in assists-to-turnovers ratio at 6.00. Sophomore Joseph Jones is adding 14.3 points and a team-best 5.5 rebounds while making 67.7 percent from the field.
A&M is 21-3 at home since the arrival of Gillispie prior to last season. The
Aggies have won 17 straight regular-season non-conference games, including 16 straight at home.
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