Texas A&M
PRAIRIE VIEW A&M
Texas A&M 81, Prairie View A&M 49
Nov 10, 2006 | Men's Basketball
November 10, 2006
Big men Joseph Jones and Antanas Kavaliauskas scored 16 points apiece for No. 13 Texas A&M in an 81-49 victory over Prairie View A&M in the season opener for both teams Friday night.
Texas A&M, which entered the season ranked for the first time since 1980, won its seventh straight home opener.
Jones and Kavaliauskas, who are both 6-foot-9, were too much for the smallish Panthers and they had no trouble hitting easy shots under the basket throughout the game.
It was the first work of the season for Jones, who missed Texas A&M's exhibition season with tendinitis. Acie Law, last season's leading scorer, added eight points and had three assists in his return after sitting out of the last exhibition game because of a bruised tailbone.
Texas A&M led 44-21 at halftime and hot shooting by Jones in the first five minutes of the second half quickly pushed the lead to 30. He scored half of his points in that span and finished the run with a dunk on a put-back.
The Aggies led by as many as 35 points in the second half and Prairie View wouldn't get within 30 points the rest of the way.
The game was a mismatch from the start, with the Aggies scoring the game's first 13 points. Prairie View got on the board on a two-handed dunk by Johnny Cobb with about 16 minutes left in the first half.
The dunk didn't do much to get the Panthers going and A&M went on a 13-3 run fueled by six points by Law to lead 26-5 midway through the first half.
The Panthers committed 30 turnovers and made just 14 of 45 shots. They seemed overwhelmed by Texas A&M and often badly missed their shots.
The Texas A&M starters played about half of the game, sitting out intermittently throughout the first and second halves.
Andy Genao led the Panthers with 13 points and three assists and Cobb added seven points.
It was a good first game for the Aggies, who are trying to build off of last year's performance when they got their first NCAA tournament berth since 1987. Texas A&M lost to Final Four-bound LSU on a last-second 3-pointer in the second round.
Texas A&M's Chinemelu Elonu provided some of the most exciting moments of the night. The freshman had two dunks and drew a standing ovation when he surprised Jared Ellison from behind to swipe away his layup on a fast break late in the first half.
Heralded freshman Donald Sloan scored eight points and showed that he's not afraid to hustle as he twice slid across the court while fighting for loose balls.
The Panthers, who won just five games last season, drop to 0-8 all-time against Texas A&M.
The opening night record crowd of 10,722 included former President George H.W. Bush, his wife, Barbara, and Texas A&M president Robert Gates, who was nominated this week to replace Donald Rumsfeld as secretary of defense.
Texas A&M Postgame Quotes
* NOTE: Free video of the postgame press conference is available in the men's basketball section of the new CSTV Aggies All-Access.
HEAD COACH BILLY GILLISPIE: "It was a good win for us. We had some really good possessions, especially early. We didn't complete the half or the game the way we need to. I thought it was a real nice opening win for us. The way to go about playing and winning, you can't be concerned about who your particular opponent is on a particular night. You have to play the game the way it's supposed to be played.
(On Elonu's block) "It was a nice block. Not too many people can do it. It was a great effort, number one. He never gave up on the play. Those are game changers.
"The best thing is when you see that many fans show up. We had a great crowd tonight. We've had better exhibition crowds than any place I've ever been a part of, including Illinois when we were pre-season number one. There's a great deal of excitement and a great buzz, and I think the players deserve that. They've really worked hard for a two year period so it's really nice to see that. Thats the biggest change. It's fun to be a Texas A&M basketball player. It's fun to be a part of this program. We haven't completed anything. Like I've said before, we haven't hung any banners yet that say champions on them. That's what we're trying to do and we have a long ways to do that."
Texas A&M Postgame Notes
- Tonight's attendance of 10,722 set an A&M record for a home opener. The old mark was 6,929 against North Carolina A&T two years ago in Coach Billy Gillispie's debut.
- A&M has won seven straight home openers.
- Billy Gillispie is 5-0 in season openers in his career.
- A&M has won 23 straight regular-season non-conference home games.
- Antanas Kavaliauskas scored a career-high 16 points with a career-best four steals. He made 7-of-8 from the field.
- Freshman Chinemelu Elonu scored 12 points with four rebounds in his college debut.
- A&M is 34-5 at Reed Arena under Billy Gillispie.
- Gillispie is 50-6 in home games in his last four seasons (he was 16-1 in his last year at UTEP).
