Texas A&M
BAYLOR
Texas A&M 72, Baylor 70
Jan 28, 2006 | Men's Basketball
January 28, 2006
Joseph Jones scored 29 points and had 10 rebounds to help Texas A&M fight off a scrappy Baylor team for a 72-70 win on Saturday.
Texas A&M struggled to stay on top after leading by as many as 12 points in the second half. The Aggies barely outlasted the Bears after Aaron Bruce made three 3-pointers in the last 1:30, including one at the buzzer.
Texas A&M made four free throws in the last 40 seconds to secure the win.
The Aggies used an 11-0 run to open the second half that turned a 1-point halftime advantage into a commanding 43-31 lead. The Bears didn't score until Henry Dugat's 3-pointer more than four minutes into the half.
Dugat single-handedly kept the game from getting out of hand in the next few minutes, scoring the Bears' first 13 points of the half, including two more 3's.
The Bears were 16-of-30 from 3-point range for 53 percent, with Bruce shooting 6-of-11 and Curtis Jerrells and Dugat hitting four each.
The loss is Baylor's 20th straight, dating back to last season. But the outing was an improvement for the Bears, who lost their first five games by an average of 23 points after being banned from non-conference play by the NCAA this season for numerous violations under former coach Dave Bliss.
Baylor (0-6, 0-6) got 18 points apiece from Jerrells, Dugat and Bruce.
Acie Law scored 16 points and Josh Carter added nine for the Aggies.
In an ugly first half, both teams went through separate spans of almost seven minutes without scoring a field goal. Baylor's drought came midway through the half and Texas A&M's near the end. The Aggies had a 27-21 lead late in the first before Baylor scored seven straight points to take the lead.
It would be short-lived as Texas A&M (13-5, 3-4 Big 12) went back on top with Jones' monster two-handed dunk with 1:24 remaining. The crowd went wild as he hung on the rim while a defender collected himself from the court underneath. Jones had 15 first-half points after shooting 5-of-5 to start the game.
The Aggies lead 32-31 at halftime. It was the closest the Bears have been at halftime all season, after trailing by an average of 13 points in their first five games.
Postgame Quotes
BAYLOR GUARD AARON BRUCE: "We had a tough time stopping their offensive rebounding. A&M got offensive rebounds in the crunch time of the game. That is what was most disappointing. The way we shot masked our poor rebounding. A loss is a loss no matter if it is by two or 102. We have been making gradual progress, and we have had a lot to learn. We can only use that excuse for so long. After this we go back to the drawing board. Losing tastes the same no matter how much you lose by. Joseph Jones is a big guy and force down low. Players love to play with people like Jones. Ask Acie (Law) if he loves playing with Jones, I bet he does."
BAYLOR HEAD COACH SCOTT DREW: "The good news is that we are closer. The bad news is that we are not there yet. I was pleased with our guard play. The big news in the game was that A&M got a lot of rebounds and we had a lot of turnovers. The more you play the more you learn, and we are learning and are getting close to putting it all together. A close game like this gives a lot of opportunity to learn, especially to a young team like us. This is an experience we can build on."
TEXAS A&M GUARD ACIE LAW: "They shot the ball extremely well. They have great guards who were able to make shots. The two freshmen are very talented, and everyone knows that Aaron Bruce is one of the top point guards in the league. It is good to get a conference victory. We have to get better defensively. We have to lower our opponents field goal percentage. We have our toughest week ahead of us against Texas and Oklahoma. Joseph Jones makes it easier on the whole team if he gets going. We try to get him early easy looks to get the big mans confidence up. When Joe plays well we play better as a team."
TEXAS A&M FORWARD JOSEPH JONES: "I got back into the flow of things. I was feeling good before the game started. I was able to feed off my team and make shots. We had a sharp shoot around before the game. The entire team was focused and we really came together. This win is a big confidence builder. All the post players in the Big 12 are big, strong, and tall. I have to do my best game in and game out."
TEXAS A&M HEAD COACH BILLY GILLISPIE: "It was a good win for us tonight. We barely hung on. They fought hard. They shoot three's better than we shoot foul shots, and that is a bad combination. They played hard and played well. We played really hard, and pretty well ourselves. It was a nice comeback after Wednesday's game against Kansas. Joseph Jones had a big day. I thought he was going to have a big day. I didn't think that because of the opponent but because of his mindset before the game. When we do a good job of moving the ball and getting Joe open looks we are at our very best. Joe is a really good player, and a great shooter. He has great mechanics and he is really learning how to adjust to the defenses' adjustments to him. We went to sleep a couple of times on perimeter defense, but mostly we contested their shots, they just did a good job of shooting the ball. It wasn't bad defense for the most part, it was just great offense. Give Baylor credit for that. There is no such thing as a must win game unless it is an elimination situation. That is the way I see it at least. Our games coming up are must play well games. We don't have two tough games this next week, we have one tough game twice. We are just where we were last year in conference. We play a sixteen game schedule one game at a time."
Texas A&M Postgame Notes
- A&M has won three straight against Baylor, the first time either team has posted three straight wins in the series since the Aggies won three in a row in 1989 and 1990.
- Baylor's 16 three-pointers is the most ever made against A&M, The previous mark was 15 by Oklahoma in 1999.
- Joseph Jones scored 29 points, a career-high for a Big 12 game. He has 27 earlier this month at Oklahoma State. He added 10 rebounds, giving him his fifth double-double of the year, the third most in the league.
- Acie Law scored 16 points with 7 assists. Law has scored in double figures in all but one game this year. He played just eight minutes against Grambling before leaving the game with a concussion, finishing with eightts.
- A&M had a season-low nine turnovers. The Aggies had 10 against Southern and Texas Tech.
- The Aggies' 22 assists were a season-high for conference play.
- A&M committed a season-low 13 fouls. The previous low was 17 against Grambling and Oklahoma).
- A&M tied a season low with just 11 three-point attempts (Oklahoma State). The season low for threes made is 2 against Oklahoma State.
- In his last three years as a head coach, Billy Gillispie is 45-6 in home games, including a 29-5 mark at A&M.
