Texas A&M
(#25) TEXAS TECH
Wright's 29 Lead Aggies over Texas Tech, 85-63
Feb 26, 2005 | Men's Basketball
February 26, 2005
Antoine Wright scored 29 points, Joseph Jones had 16 in the second half and Texas A&M used a late 31-6 run to beat Texas Tech 85-63 on Saturday.
Texas A&M (18-7, 7-7 Big 12) led 52-51 before outscoring Tech 19-2 over the next seven minutes capped by Wright's putback layup with 6:20 remaining.
The record A&M crowd of 13,136 taunted Tech coach Bobby Knight throughout the timeout that followed. Knight was so upset that he spent the timeout jawing with the officials.
The win is Texas A&M's first over Tech in five tries and its third victory in a row.
Texas Tech (17-8, 9-5) led by one at halftime and neither team got ahead by more than a basket until Chris Walker's 3 with 13:30 left put the Aggies ahead 50-47. A basket by Martin Zeno just seconds later cut the lead back to one before a bucket by Wright started the run.
Wright hit six 3-pointers in the first half. He made his seventh 3-pointer of the night during the run, but the inside play of Jones sparked the Aggies offense during that stretch.
The 6-foot-9 freshman, who was scoreless in the first half, had 14 points in the game's final 12 minutes and put an exclamation point on his performance with a two-handed dunk that drew a foul with 1:53 left.
In the last few seconds of the game, the raucous crowd encouraged Wright to stay at A&M next season instead of entering the NBA draft, chanting ``one more year.''
Texas Tech didn't score a field goal for an eight minute span late in the second half. The Red Raiders were led by Zeno with 16 points and Jarrius Jackson with 14.
The A&M defense, led by Wright, stifled the Red Raiders' usually potent offense in the second half. Entering the game, Texas Tech was averaging a Big 12-best 80.7 points per game.
Wright kept the Aggies in it early, scoring 14 of A&M's first 17 points. He went into halftime with 22 points, including his sixth 3 of the half to give A&M a 34-32 lead. He was 7-of-8 from 3-point range and his seven 3s ties a record for most in a Big 12 game this season.
Jackson answered with a 3-pointer of his own on the next possession, backpedaling down the court with his shooting hand still in the air.
Led by coach Billy Gillispie, the Aggies have had a basketball renaissance at a school known more for its football team and numerous traditions. With the win, he tied F.D. Steger (1912-15) and Shelby Metcalf (1963-64) for the best start for a first year coach at Texas A&M.
POSTGAME NOTES
*A&M is 18-7, tying Billy Gillispie for the most wins by a first-year coach in school history. Shelby Metcalf finished 18-7 in his first year in 1963-64
*A&M is 7-7 in Big 12 play, its most Big 12 wins in the nine years of the league's existence. The last time A&M had as many conference wins was in 1995, when it finished 7-7 in Southwest Conference play.
*A&M has won three straight Big 12 games for the first time. The last time A&M won three straight conference games was in 1995, when it won three straight SWC games.
*A&M's 11-win improvement over last season (7-21) ties them with San Diego as the nation's most improved team. San Diego is 15-11 after going 4-26 last year.
*A&M has defeated two nationally ranked teams this season for only the third time in school history and for the first time since the 1978-79 team beat five ranked teams. The 1968-69 team also beat two ranked teams.
*Today's 22-point margin of victory was the third biggest in series history. A&M posted an 89-59 win in College Station in 1960 and a 93-70 win in Lubbock in 1983.
*A&M is 4-3 against Tech at Reed Arena, 2-2 against Bob Knight coached teams. Today's win ended a three-game Tech winning streak in the series.
*Today's attendance of 13,136 broke the school record, the third time this season the record has been broken. The previous record was 13,016 against Oklahoma State on Feb. 12. A&M has attracted eight of the 16 largest crowds in school history this season.
*A&M closes is regular season home schedule with a school record average attendance of 7,843, smashing the old record of 6,466 set in 2002-03. A&M averaged 10,988 in Big 12 play, demolishing the old record for conference play of 8,157 set in 2003.
*A&M is 16-2 at home, the most home wins in school history. The previous mark was 12 in 1980 and 1976.
*A&M is 7-7 in league play after going 0-16 last year, tying for the second best turnaround in nine years of Big 12 play. Iowa State owns the record after going from 6-10 (1999) to 14-2 in 2000. Texas had a seven-game improvement in 1999 and Tech improved seven games in 2002.
*Antoine Wright scored 29 points, the third best game of his career and his second best in Big 12 play. He made 7-of-8 three-pointers, tying the school record for single game percentage (.875) with Lynn Suber, who made 7-of-8 against Connecticut in the 1989 Great Alaska Shootout.The school record for most in a game is eight by Bernard King against Lamar in 2000 and by Jerald Brown against Nebraska in 1997.
*In the last three games, Wright has averaged 27.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.6 assists and made .683 from the field, .631 from three-point range and .875 from the free throw line.
*Joseph Jones had 16 points and 7 rebounds for the second straight game. In the last three games, Jones has averaged 16.3 points, 7.3 rebounds and made .720 from the field (18-25). He leads the team with 13 three-point plays.
*A&M is 12-0 when Bobby Leach has four or more assists.
*A&M is 17-0 when any player besides Wright, Jones and Acie Law scores in double figures.
*A&M is 13-0 when its opponent scores 64 points or fewer.
*A&M is 18-1 when its opponent shoots under 46 percent. Kansas is the only loss as the Jayhawks shot .413 in Lawrence.
*A&M is 13-0 when a non-starter scores in double figures.
*A&M is 11-0 when four or more players score in double figures.
*A&M shot .585 from the field. Coming into today, A&M was the only Big 12 team to shoot better than 60 percent in Big 12 play and the Aggies have done it twice -- .611 vs. Missouri and .604 at Colorado. This was the 12th time A&M has shot better than 50 percent this season and the third straight.
*A&M made 12 three-point field goals, tying for the second most in school history and was the most since it made 12 against Tennessee in 2002-03. The record is 13 against Baylor in 2000.
*This was A&M's 10th game of scoring more than 80 points.
*A&M has outrebounded 18 of 25 opponents.
POSTGAME QUOTES
Texas Tech Head Coach Bob Knight:
"Two things have to happen in a basketball game. There's always a psychological advantage in a game and it can come as a result of a lot of things. A kid gets hurt or you're playing at home, it depends on the team. One team in a game has the psychological advantage and you have to take advantage of it. Thats not easy to do. The other team, if there is a psychological advantage has to overcome it. In each case thats the mark of a good team. Today, particularly in the second half, we had one good team playing, and that was Texas A&M. We were not a good team in the second half because we weren't able to overcome whatever was involved, playing on the road, playing a team thats playing its last home game, whatever. We've got to overcome that. On the other hand, they've really got to take advantage of it, and they did. Billy's done a really good job with this team. They were not easy for us to play against at home and they certainly weren't easy for us to play against here today. The second half, that's what I'm talking about is a good team. They got a lead and they increased it. They never looked back, never gave us a chance to get back into it. We've had real problems with the psychological part of basketball this year. We've had games where we've had the same kind of lead or the same kind of advantage in the second half that A&M had against us today and weren't able to take advantage of it. Being able to take advantage of certain circumstances is incredibly important. We didn't and they did and that was a huge difference in the ballgame today. You would think that maybe the way we played we would have a whole slew of turnovers and we just had three or four at the half and ended up with ten. What they did was get better shots than we did. They got better shots, they got better attempts to score than we had and that makes a huge difference in the way that the two teams played."
Texas A&M Freshman Joseph Jones:
"I just wanted to keep attacking and get all of them in foul trouble if possible."
Texas A&M Senior Bobby Leach:
"When coach got the job he worked us so hard that we knew something good had to come out of it."
Texas A&M Junior Antoine Wright:
"The game plan definitely wasn't to take threes and I hit a couple. Coach said that one of them was a bad shot but the other ones were good shots so keep shooting. The game plan was to play inside out like we've been playing. They just sagged off me and I hit a couple shots so I kept shooting. Joseph has been playing great. Anytime he gets the ball down there he demands so much respect from the other team that its easier for us to move around and get an open shot. We just traded baskets in the first game. The other team was getting easy baskets and I was making threes. Sooner or later, I'm going to start missing and they were getting easy baskets. Coach told us we had to limit easy baskets. He didn't really say it like that but it was along those lines. Thats what we did and we made some baskets. It just worked out like that. I don't know what we're going to do without Bobby. We need Bobby. He's been great for us this year. He's been shooting the ball really well and making great decisions. We still have a lot of season left and we need him to play like he's been playing. We knew we had to come out and stick to our principles."
Texas A&M Head Coach Billy Gillispie:
"I wanted to come in here today. This is a great win for us against a really, really good team. I was so proud with the way we hung in there in the first half. They were probably saying the same thing, hanging in there. They had some foul trouble and we had some foul trouble. We weren't executing as well as we could because of their defense a lot of times. The second half we got the ball inside and played inside out and were able to make some shots. Antoine Wright was fantastic in the first half. We had 34 points and he had 22. I'm disappointed he didn't have all of them, but he was fantastic and that's what we expect out of him. He's really starting to play. Not only was he making shots, but he was making the right play. I'm happy for him and I'm happy for Bobby, to see him go out in style in his last home game. I'm just happy for our guys because they played so hard and they played with a great deal of confidence against a great team. It's always fun when you win. Today Joe had one assist and I though he had more, but as I look back on it, we passed out of the post and made the extra pass, so we got a really wide open shot. I think we've been pretty good for forty minutes. If we don't turn the ball over, we usually guard pretty well. I think we probably played better offensively in the second half. We guarded really hard for forty minutes. They missed some shots that they would normally make. It hurt them with Ross getting hurt and being out for a long time. We were in pretty good defensive position. When we practice like we do every single day, you know what you're going to get. In the last three games, the shots have been falling because you have better ball movement. There wasn't any long speech, there wasn't any change in attitude, there wasn't a wakeup call or anything like that, we just simply got beat by a much better team that night (against Texas) and we got to play again. I wish I could say that I came up with something real fancy, but I didn't. These guys are tough. They don't worry about the last, they concentrate on the next."
