Texas A&M
NORTH TEXAS
Texas A&M 72, North Texas 70
Dec 06, 2005 | Men's Basketball
December 06, 2005
Joseph Jones scored a career-high 35 points and tied a career best with 13 rebounds to carry Texas A&M past North Texas 72-70 Tuesday night at Reed Arena.
Two free throws by Kendrick Davis pulled the Mean Green (2-3) to within two at 72-70 with 50 seconds to play. The Aggies (5-0) ran the clock down on the ensuing possession and, after a ball was knocked out of bounds, could not get a shot off in time and gave the ball back to UNT with 13.6 seconds left.
North Texas brought the ball across the timeline and Davis' 3-pointer at the buzzer bounced high off the rim and settled atop the backboard as time expired.
Jones' previous high was 25 against Clemson in last season's NIT first round. It was the most points by an Aggie since Joe Wilbert had 39 against SMU in 1994-95.
Jones scored 16 of his points from the free throw line, tying for the fifth most in school history, missing just three attempts.
Calvin Watson's 22 points led the Mean Green while Davis added 21. The only other Aggie in double figures was Acie Law with 10.
North Texas led for a good part of the first half before the Aggies went on a 12-4 run to take a 38-31 lead into the locker room.
UNT never regained the lead in the second half, but cut a 10-point deficit down to two with three minutes to go on a jumper by Watson.
The game featured 51 fouls and 46 turnovers.
A&M returns to action Saturday at 2 p.m. when the Aggies host Grambling State.
Texas A&M vs. North Texas
Reed Arena - December 6, 2005
Postgame Quotes
Texas A&M sophomore Joseph Jones:
on North Texas players referring to him as a "monster"
"I will take it if that is what they are going to give me. They were competing really hard tonight, but my guards did a great job of getting me the ball and I was just feeling it. I was trying to come into the game tonight and improve my play from last Saturday against Penn State. Last time out I wasn't finishing plays. I like that we are winning, but we know that we can play better. We have to be able to put away teams when we have the chance. I think that this is going to help us because there will be a lot of games like this down the road that will come down to the last play. If you make the stop you win, if not you leave upset with a loss. I was just hoping that the last shot wasn't going to go in."
Texas A&M Head Coach Billy Gillispie:
"Tonight was not a great performance by a long way. We have a long way to go. We were lucky that shot doesn't go in and we don't lose. We have a lot of improvements to make. Joseph (Jones) scored half our points and had most of our rebounds. It was a great performance and I congratulate him on getting his career high. He always demands two guys guarding him, and tonight they chose to guard with one. Tonight doesn't surprise me. He's a fantastic player and an even better person. He's a tough kid. We'll take positive things out of tonight. We hit our free throws well down the stretch. We got the ball to the right guy. Tonight we didn't have great execution. We made so many bonehead plays. These guys are smart. This is a great teaching situation for us. Acie's good, but this was not a particularly good game for him tonight. He's a guy who's defense is determined by his offense. We can't do that. We're not a big physical team. We worried too much about the last play and not enough about the next one. They took it at Acie and he didn't respond, but he will. All of us are pretty banged up. We won the game, but we got whipped. We practiced like this yesterday and Sunday and I believe that you play like you practice. We're counting on a lot of new guys and we've got to get more out of more people."
North Texas junior Kendrick Davis:
"Playing against a Big 12 school we were looking to make a name for ourselves and make some noise. A&M is good. Jones is a monster in there down low. On the last shot we originally wanted to get a set off a staggered screen. I looked up and saw 4 seconds left and I had to take it myself. I don't regret it one bit. I practice that shot all the time. I'd take that shot again any day."
North Texas head coach Johnny Jones:
"I think our guys came into the game tonight excited and were able to play in a great environment. We knew that playing a Billy Gillispie team we would have to be phsyical and play well. We played them tough, but we couldn't get it to fall at the end. They did what they had to do to get out of here with the 'W.' We really want to win games like this. This kind of game helps us in our next game if we can come out next time with the same intensity. This is a sign that we are getting better and that we are continuing to grow. They really exploited us on defense with the big fella (Joseph Jones) inside."
A&M NOTES:
*A&M has won 18 straight regular-season non-conference games.
*A&M is 22-3 at home under Billy Gillispie
*Gillispie's record at A&M is 26-10
*Joseph Jones scored a career-high 35 points and tied his career-best with 13 rebounds. It was the most points by an Aggie since Joe Wilbert scored 39 against SMU in 1994-95. Jones' previous career-high was 25 against Clemson in last year's NIT. He also had 13 reboundstwice last season.
*Jones made a career-best 16-of-19 free throws, tying for the fifth most free throws made and the seventh most attempted in school history. It was the most made since Mike Floyd made 16 against Houston in 1972-73 and was the most attempts since Damon Johnson had 21 against Texas in 1992-93. The last time an Aggie made more than 16 in a game was in 1969-70, when Mike Heitmann made 18 against Louisiana Tech.
*A&M entered the game ranked second nationally in assists-to-turnovers ratio (1.9), but had a season-low 15 assists and a season-high 22 turnovers.
*A&M also shot a season-low 38.0 percent from the field while UNT made 44.4 percent, the best this season by an A&M opponent.
*Acie Law scored 10 points, his fifth straight game in double figures, but tied his career high with six turnovers.
*Dominique Kirk posted a career-high eight rebounds. He had seven in a game twice last season.
