Texas A&M
LAMAR
Texas A&M 94, Lamar 60
Nov 17, 2006 | Men's Basketball
November 17, 2006
Joseph Jones scored seven of his 19 points in the first 3:30 of the game as 12th-ranked Texas A&M cruised to a 94-60 win over Lamar in the inaugural Shelby Metcalf Classic on Friday night.
The Aggies jumped out to a 30-5 lead, going on runs of 11-0 to start the game, and 14-2 to pull away in the game's first 10 minutes. In their first game, the Aggies jumped out in front of Prairie View A&M with a 26-5 run.
''I knew we were hot at the start, we swung the ball on both sides of floor and put pressure on them,'' coach Billy Gillispie said. ''We were pushing the ball down the floor against their defense and we had them in a mode where they had to retreat a little bit. Inside-out is the way you are supposed to play.''
Also leading the Aggies in scoring were Josh Carter with 14 points and Dominique Kirk and Antanas Kavaliauskas had 12 points apiece.
Acie Law was the only starter that did not score in double figures, but he still had nine points and a team high six assists.
Lamar's Brandon Chappell found his outside shooting touch in the second half and finished the game with a team high 16 points. He was the only player to make a 3-pointer for Lamar, which went 4-of-23 from beyond the 3-point line.
A bright spot for the Cardinals was their rebounding. They had 46 in the game with 20 coming on the offensive end.
''They are good, No. 12 and deserving of their ranking,'' Lamar coach Steve Roccaforte said. ''They are very well-coached and they defend well. They are a lot deeper than they have been in the past couple of years.''
James Davis scored 14 points and was a force inside for Lamar, which only shot 28 percent. He scored eight points in the last three minutes of the second half to cut into the Aggies's lead.
Lamar went to a zone defense in the second half in order to slow A&M, which led 57-23 at halftime. Both teams scored 37 points after intermission.
Texas A&M's largest lead was 73-32 with 13:10 left in the second half.
Lamar went on a 13-4 run over the next five minutes - their only real run of the game.
Texas A&M has now won 24 straight non-conference home games and nine straight regular-season games.
Aggies freshman forward Bryan Davis scored 11 points and had a game high three blocks. Thirteen players scored for the Aggies, and no starter played more than 25 minutes.
''It was a really, really good first half against a team that is much better than they played in the first half,'' Gillispie said. ''It is nice to win and we are excited about the win, but we have a long, long, long way to go to be a very good team.''
Shelby Metcalf was the winningest coach in Aggies basketball history.
Texas A&M Postgame Notes
- Lamar made just 27.6 percent from the field, the eighth lowest by an opponent in A&M history. The last time a team shot lower was Louisiana-Monore (.264) in 2004-05.
- Freshman Bryan Davis scored a career-high 11 points with 4 rebounds, 4 steals and 3 blocked shots.
- Joseph Jones scored a season-high 19 points in just 18 minutes of play. Jones was 6-of-6 from the field and added 4 assists.
- A&M has won nine straight regular-season games.
- A&M has won seven straight games at Reed Arena.
- A&M has won 24 straight regular-season non-conference games at Reed Arena.
- A&M is 35-5 at home under Billy Gillispie, with a 22-1 mark against non-conference opponents.
Texas A&M Postgame Quotes
JOSEPH JONES: "Every game we want to come out and play hard. Things were going pretty well for us tonight. I just wanted to come out and do what I can to help my team get the victory."
DOMINIQUE KIRK: "They (Lamar) came out playing zone and we ran our zone O -- moved the ball inside-out and had open looks. We didn't execute in the second half. We've got to play the whole 40 minutes with a high intensity level."
HEAD COACH BILLY GILLISPIE: "We had a really good first half, but a really poor second half. We made too many mistakes and got pounded on the offensive boards. We made too many plays without thinking about what we were doing. If we didn't make a bunch of shots at the start we would have been in trouble. But you can't depend on making shots all of the time to win games. We're excited about the win, but we have a long, long, long way to go to be a good team. I knew we were hot at the start. We swung the ball on both sides of the floor and put pressure on them. Inside-out is the way we are supposed to play. We started doing the exact opposite after the start by keeping the ball on the perimeter and not attacking. The shots are the easy part of the offense. The hard part is getting guys to understand how to attack. We have to be more consistent over the entire game. (On Joe Jones play) He got a little winded but he played a little better than he did last week. He is still a little gimpy but fought through it and played better."
Lamar Postgame Quotes
HEAD COACH STEVE ROCCAFORTE: "They're good, No. 12 and deserving of their ranking. They are very well coached and they defend well. They are a lot deeper than they've been the past couple of years. The thing you can not duplicate is the intensity level that those guys play at. That is the thing I was disappointed with at the start of the game. Defensively, we gave them so many easy looks. We started off man, switched to zone and they hit their first shots. I was disappointed we weren't more aggressive. At halftime I told the guys there are two kinds of people -- fighters or quitters. We are a better team having prepared for this game. We've got two more games and we need to leave here a better team. Some positives were outrebounding them by five and the number of times we went to the line. It's hard to duplicate what they do on defense, really hard to make passes. They push you out and make it hard to execute an offense. We tried everything we could to get some open space. It's hard to run an offense against them. When you watch them on tape, you still don't get the right feel. Seeing them on tape is not the same as when you see them in person."
