Texas A&M
Pacific
Pacific 63, Texas A&M 56
Jan 03, 2006 | Men's Basketball
January 03, 2006
Johnny Gray scored a career-high 28 points to lead Pacific to a 63-56 win on Tuesday against Texas A&M, handing the Aggies their first loss of the season.
A&M (10-1) opened the second half with a 15-7 run to take a 40-33 lead with12 minutes left. Pacific?™s top scorer, Christian Maraker, picked up his fourth foul less than a minute later with A&M leading, 40-35, but the Aggies failed to take advantage.
Pacific (9-4) made three unanswered three-pointers, including two by Gray, to re-take the lead at 44-40 with nine minutes left and never trailed again. The Tigers led by as many as nine in the final minutes.
A&M pulled within 55-50 with less than two minutes left and had a chance to tighten the game, but Dominique Kirk's three-pointer rimmed out. From there, the Tigers made eight straight free throws to close the game.
Pacific out-shot the Aggies, 43 percent to 41 percent, and had a 31-30 rebounding edge. But the Tigers won the game at the free throw line, making 20-of-24 charity shots to 10-of-14 by A&M.
The Aggies took a 14-5 lead eight minutes into the contest on a three-pointer by Kirk, but struggled offensively the rest of the first half. The Tigers out-scored the Aggies, 21-11, in the final 12 minutes to take a 26-25 lead into intermission.
Pacific made just 32 percent from the field in the first half, but that was off-set by the Aggies?™ 10 turnovers. It marked the first time this season A&M has trailed at halftime.
Joseph Jones led the Aggies with 13 points and 12 rebounds while Josh Carter scored 13 and Acie Law added 10.
Maraker finished with 14 points for the Tigers.
The Aggies open Big 12 play on Saturday at home against Texas Tech. Tipoff is set for 5 p.m. at Reed Arena.
