Texas A&M
(#10) OKLAHOMA STATE
Aggies Fall to 10th-Ranked OSU, 66-59
Feb 12, 2005 | Men's Basketball
February 12, 2005
John Lucas III scored 18 points, Joey Graham added 17 and No. 10 Oklahoma State recovered from poor first-half shooting to beat Texas A&M 66-59 on Saturday night.
After the Aggies pulled to 62-59, Ivan McFarlin scored three points in the final minute to ensure the Cowboys' fifth straight win.
Oklahoma State (19-3, 9-2 Big 12) led by as many as 15 in the second half before Texas A&M went on a 9-2 run that ended with two free throws by Bobby Leach with 1:25 remaining.
McFarlin made a layup with 51 seconds left to extend Oklahoma State's lead and quiet the raucous crowd. He also hit the front end of a one-and-one after a missed 3-point attempt by Texas A&M, putting the game out of reach.
Oklahoma State shot just 37 percent in the first half, but the Cowboys improved in the second half to finish at 47 percent.
Texas A&M (15-6, 4-6) got 16 points from Acie Law, and Antoine Wright scored 13.
Graham rebounded from first-half shooting woes to score 11 points, including three 3s, in the first five minutes of the second half. His third 3 gave the Cowboys a 42-27 lead, their biggest of the game.
He was just 1-of-5 with two free throws for four points in the first half.
Graham made one more basket before he was whistled for his fourth foul with 12:29 remaining and taken out of the game. But McFarlin took over where Graham left off, scoring the Cowboys' next six points. Graham returned with 6:41 remaining.
Both teams struggled offensively in the first half, with the Cowboys shooting 11-of-30 and Texas A&M 9-of-25.
After a basket by Lucas broke a 15-15 tie with 8:24 left in the half, neither team scored for almost four minutes. And when Oklahoma State finally did score it was on a goaltending call.
Lucas, who had 11 first-half points, took over from there, adding five points in the final three minutes to help the Cowboys to a 29-23 halftime lead.
The crowd of 13,016, which included former President George H.W. Bush, was Texas A&M's largest ever.
The win was Oklahoma State's 10th straight over the Aggies and its first victory this season that wasn't by double digits.
Postgame Quotes & Notes
Oklahoma State Senior John Lucas:
"I have to tip my hat to A&M. They're a great team and the coaching staff has done a tremendous job. The crowd here wasn't that great even back when I was at Baylor, but tonight it was incredible. Games like this make us stronger. We've got some tough games coming that are going to be just like this one. We have to execute at the end. These kind of games give us tremendous confidence. We're an old, mature team that doesn't get rattled. We're clicking and playing good. That embarrassment at OU woke us up. We work harder in practice. We're working hard to get better and it shows in the games."
Oklahoma State Head Coach Designate Sean Sutton:
"We want to try to get the team in as many situations as we can. This was a situation where in the last two minutes we had to hang on to a lead. A&M forced some turnovers at the end. It was good for us to be in a tight game. Billy has done a terrific job. They play defense as hard as anyone we've played so far. They were extremely physical. We had a bad shooting percentage (in the first half) and that had a lot to do with it. Coming in we knew there were two things we had to do -- do a great job on Wright and do a great job on Jones. Wright is a much better player than he was his first two years here. He's a difficult matchup because he can take it off the dribble and take the three pointer. Jones is as good a freshman as any in the conference. We won the inside battle by nine rebounds. That's a big reason for the win. This was a great environment. Everybody in the conference needs to understand that this will not be an easy place to play in the future. A&M's always had great fans at football games and tonight they proved that they can have great basketball fans."
Texas A&M Sophomore Acie Law:
"John Lucas is a great player. He's tough. They're very physical. They're solid and they're well coached. This is one of the best defenses we've played this season. They're a great team. Oklahoma State's defense is just how Coach Gillispie coaches us to play. As a team, we played hard and we played together. We just need to limit our turnovers and mistakes. Our fans have been great. They've supported us every game."
Texas A&M Freshman Joseph Jones:
"We were fighting hard, they just out hustled us. They're real strong on the inside."
Texas A&M Head Coach Billy Gillispie:
"They showed us how to execute. Both teams played extremely hard, we just couldn't run our offense. That was the difference. Everybody was shooting shots in a hurry. We were standing around with the ball too much. We weren't as strong as we needed to be. We dug ourselves too deep a hole. We dug it because we couldn't run our offense. The story of the game was that they just physically whipped us. They're bigger, stronger, and more mature than we are, but we'll get bigger and stronger. Next year we'll have another year of experience. I think that you have to have (the crowd) to build the program we're talking about building. The crowd was a major factor in us being able to come back from a 15-point deficit. They're a good rebounding team. They beat us in both halves."
A&M NOTES:
*Oklahoma State out-rebounded the Aggies, 39-30, only the fifth time this season A&M has been beaten on the boards.
*Antoine Wright scored 13 points to run his career total to 1,141, moving him into 19th on A&M's career chart. He needs 21 points to move into the top 15.
*Tonight's attendance of 13,016 was the largest in A&M history, surpassing the previous record of 12,811 set on Jan. 12 against Texas. In the last seven games, A&M has attracted seven of the top 15 crowds in school history. The Aggies have drawn seven straight crowds of at least 9,000, a streak matched in the Big 12 only by Kansas, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma.
*A&M average attendance for the season through 16 home games is 7,546, well ahead of the record of 6,466 set in 2002-03 with just two home games remaining.
*In Big 12 play, A&M is averaging 11,226. A&M's record for conference play is 8,157 set in 2003.
