Texas A&M
Kansas State
Kansas State 58, Texas A&M 54
Jan 18, 2006 | Men's Basketball
January 18, 2006
Cartier Martin scored 17 points and forced a critical held ball with 4.2 seconds left, and Kansas State held off Texas A&M's second-half comeback to win 58-54 on Wednesday night.
Lance Harris hit three clutch free throws and added 11 points for Kansas State (11-4, 2-2 Big 12 Conference), which improved to 7-0 in Manhattan against the Aggies.
Texas A&M (11-4, 1-3) lost for the fourth time in five games and dropped to 0-3 on the road despite 28 points from Acie Law. The Aggies have lost three straight games by a total of seven points.
Law scored 22 points in the second half, including a 3-pointer that tied it at 53-53 with 1:03 to go. But he missed one of two free throws with 29 seconds left and Kansas State up 55-53 -- and then missed two 3-point tries in the closing seconds after Harris hit one free throw with 19.4 seconds left to give the Wildcats a 56-54 lead.
Joseph Jones went up for a follow shot after Law's last miss, but Martin tied him up and the ball went to Kansas State on the alternate possession. Harris, fouled on the inbounds play, hit both free throws with 3 seconds left to seal the Wildcats' victory.
Texas A&M, which opened the second half on a 2-for-13 slump and trailed 43-29 with 10 minutes to go, got 13 points from Law over a span of a little more than 5 minutes and closed within 51-48 on Jones' dunk with 2:45 to go.
On Kansas State's next possession, Law fouled Martin on a 3-point heave as the shot clock ran out. Martin hit his second and third free throws for a 53-48 lead with 2:07 left, but Josh Carter's basket and Law's 3-pointer tied it up.
Martin hit two free throws with 43.8 seconds left to give Kansas State the lead for good, 55-53.
The Wildcats led by seven points at halftime but couldn't take advantage of Texas A&M's early second-half struggles to put the game away. Kansas State didn't make a second-half field goal until Martin hit a 3-pointer with 14:30 left for a 36-27 lead.
David Hoskins, who came in averaging 13 points for the Wildcats, was held to two points on 1-for-5 shooting. He has eight points in the Wildcats' last three games, after scoring a career-high 25 on Jan. 7 at Iowa State.
Jones had 10 points, well below his 15.8-point average, for Texas A&M. He shot just 2-for-10 from the field.
Kansas State outshot the Aggies 54 percent (14-for-36) to 30 percent (7-for-23) in the first half, holding Texas A&M without a field goal for more than 5 1/2 minutes and scoreless for another 4-minute span.
But the Aggies were 7-for-12 from the line to Kansas State's 2-for-6 in the first 20 minutes, allowing A&M to stay within 31-24 at halftime.
Postgame Quotes
TEXAS A&M HEAD COACH BILLY GILLISPIE: (On Acie Law's 28 points including numerous shots late in the game...) "He made some shots and was fantastic - we just didn't have enough guys to go with him."
(On Kansas State's performance...) "They played good and they won. We didn't play well enough to win on the road. Congratulations to them. I like the way our team is playing."
(On the play of his post players...) "I thought those guys came off the bench and played pretty well. Joseph (Jones) wasn't playing as well as he needed to be. Give all the credit to Tyler Hughes; he played great. We just have to get the ball in the basket and we didn't."
TEXAS A&M JUNIOR GUARD ACIE LAW: (On scoring a team high 28 points...) "I just saw that our best player, Joseph Jones, was missing a lot of easy baskets and wasn't getting any calls. I just wanted to take it upon myself to make plays. I have to give a lot of credit to Kansas State. Their big men played extremely well - Tyler Hughes and (Dramane) Diarra. They played extremely well. I have to give them a lot of credit. They battled on the floor. They made it a tough time for Joseph Jones to make plays. I just took it upon myself to try to make plays."
(On his two attempts from three late in the game...) "I just rushed them. I got so tight because I wasn't thinking I'd be that wide open, and when I was, I just rushed them."
(On what was said at halftime...) "You have to play harder. We weren't playing as hard as we possibly could in the first half. We gave them a lot of easy offensive rebounds and gave them easy putbacks. We just wanted to come out and take away those easy baskets and play harder. I think we did that for the most part. We got 14 down and battled back. On the road, you can't dig yourself into a hole like that and expect to battle back."
(On Texas A&M's close conference games...) "It's frustrating. We know these are ballgames we should win. We have to try and be a little bit smarter. We have to be smarter in the game down the stretch. I think if we can execute down the stretch and not make as many mistakes, we'll be fine."
KANSAS STATE HEAD COACH JIM WOOLDRIDGE: (On his big-man of choice down the stretch...) "I felt like Dramane (Diarra) has the experience at the 'five.' He's good in these types of situations. He can hit a shot. As you could see from the Kansas game, he can provide a little more offense. Tyler (Hughes) came in and provided some offense tonight. I have a little more confidence in Hughes as a defender. I thought he did a great job."
(On defending Acie Law...) "I thought we defended well. Obviously, we defended well. (Law) is a guy that can create a shot and he was a tough match-up for us. He is a tough match-up for anybody."
(On Texas A&M closing the gap...) "Obviously we would have wanted to have a go-away with, but a positive to that is that we didn't go away. We shot one bad shot down the stretch. They went to a little jump defense and we got a little side-tracked down the stretch. I thought we played good defense. We couldn't stop Acie Law at times, but I don't think it was anything we did in a negative sense. Law got going and we found ourselves in a close game. Even though it was tight down the stretch, I was pleased with our performance down the stretch."
(On Lance Harris' free throws down the stretch...) "We needed that. It was great that Lance was the component that got it done for us."
KANSAS STATE SENIOR GUARD SCHYLER THOMAS: (On the importance of tonight's game...) "A loss tonight would have put us right back where we were after the Nebraska game. We might have hurt our motivation, and some guys might have been down. So that was a huge win coming off of Saturday (vs. KU), to show people that we weren't a fluke and to show us that we can play well night in and night out."
(On providing a spark for his team...) "It's the same attitude that I have everyday. Just come and work hard and try to be a leader. The guys respond to it like a chain effect. One guy goes in the game and works hard, and everybody else wants to do the same. That is what I try to do and it is working pretty well."
(On this Saturday's game against Missouri...) "We got two wins in a row heading into our game against Missouri. They're a tough team; they have the league's leading scorer. We got a lot of momentum tonight, and everybody's high off two wins in a row. So I think that it will be a big game for us-kind of how tonight was."
KANSAS STATE JUNIOR FORWARD CARTIER MARTIN: (On the confidence level going into Saturday's game...) "That was a great win for us. That really boosted our confidence for this game, and winning tonight's game boosted our confidence. It will help us go into our next game with an edge, like we belong in the Big 12. Were going to come out confident on Saturday and hopefully we will come out successfully."
"We have been very confident at times, but I do think that we are gaining in our confidence level. We lost our first two games in the Big 12 so we kind of dropped a little bit. We are back on the rise again this week."
KANSAS STATE JUNIOR GUARD LANCE HARRIS: (On hitting the game-clinching free throws...) "It was a great feeling when the ball went through the next and to know that we have a chance at winning the game on our home court."
