Texas A&M
FORDHAM
Texas A&M 84, Fordham 61
Dec 12, 2006 | Men's Basketball
December 12, 2006
Josh Carter scored 24 points, Antanas Kavaliauskas added 19 and No. 13 Texas A&M beat Fordham 84-61 Tuesday night.
Texas A&M (8-2) bounced back from losses last week to No. 12 LSU and No. 1 UCLA. The losses made up the Aggies' first nonconference losing streak since Billy Gillispie arrived as coach more than two years ago.
Texas A&M led 39-28 at halftime. Kavaliauskas shot 6-for-7 from the field in the first half and had 13 at the break.
Sebastian Green led Fordham (5-4) with 19 points and Marcus Stout finished with 14.
TEXAS A&M vs. FORDHAM
Dec. 12, 2006
Postgame Quotes & Notes
Fordham Head Coach Dereck Whittenburg
"They pretty much dominated us on defense. I thought we made some shots early in the first half and we had a little lead. We got into some foul trouble and we couldn't run our offense. They turned up the pressure a little bit and the offense didn't score for a while. Then they kind of took control of the game. In the second half we had chances. We hung in there but they took a little lead. We cut it to 12 but couldn't execute on offense. A lot of that was because of their defense but we had some shots that we missed. Everytime we missed an opportunity they took advantage of it. That's what Top 20 teams do. I've been around 24 years and I've seen a lot of teams. This team is very, very good. They could go a long way in the NCAA tournament."
Texas A&M Sophomore Josh Carter
" I was just focusing on being more aggressive. I watched film on the last two games. I wasn't taking shots when I had them. (On playing during finals) It is hard but you have to do it. We do it all year. You go to school and you practice. You just have to concentrate on both."
Texas A&M Senior Antanas Kavaliauskas
"When Josh is shooting the ball like he can and he's wide open, why not give him the ball. We can always trust him to make that shot."
Texas A&M Head Coach Billy Gillispie
"It was a good win for us. We have to get all five guys playing as a unit. They're not playing selfish, but we just have to have all five guys where they need to be. (On Josh Carter) He's such a good shooter and passer and he's learning how to play and take advantage of a defense no matter how he's being guarded. He can't be a liability defensively. You have to execute defensively to be a good team. Josh is a very intelligent player. We have a lot of intelligent players, but he's not paying enough attention to detail in crunch time. He's a sophomore and he's played a lot of minutes. He's a good player and he has flashes where he plays really good defense like he did for the most part tonight. But he can't continue to give up three points to start every game. (On Antanas Kavaliauskas) He's inconsistent. He's great one day and then not as good as he needs to be the next. He had a tough day today and wasn't able to come to shoot around. I was really proud about the way he handled that. His mental toughness was good today. He really started out playing better than anybody on the court for us. Now he has to be more consistent. Really good players are really consistent. Antanas is a really good player and I consider him almost a great player. He has to have the mentality that he's going to be a dominant player day in and day out. He's a really good player but he just has to take it to another level just like we all do."
A&M NOTES:
*A&M has won 13 straight home games since an 83-73 loss to Kansas last season.
*A&M has won 30 straight regular-season non-conference home games.
*A&M is 41-5 at home under Billy Gillispie. In the seven seasons in Reed Arena before Gillispie arrived, A&M was 40-41.
*A&M's 40 regular-season home wins in the last three seasons are the most in the nation in that span.
*A&M made 56.6 percent from the field tonight, the ninth time in 10 games the Aggies have shot at least 49.0 percent.
*Fordham made just 37.5 percent from the field, the seventh A&M opponent to shoot under 38 percent this season.
*Fordham came in averaging 9.5 steals per game, but had 0 tonight.
*A&M made 17-of-22 free throws (.773). A&M has made at least 76 percent from the line in every game in which they've had at least 15 attempts.
*A&M had 22 assists and only 11 turnovers (its second fewest of the season) after having a season-high 20 on Saturday against UCLA.
*A&M posted a season-best +12 rebounding margin after posting a +11 margin against UCLA.
*Josh Carter scored 24 points, his second 20-point effort of the season (career-high 26 vs. Idaho State) and the fourth of his career. Carter made 4-of-5 three-pointers.
*Antanas Kavaliauskas scored 19 points with 6 rebounds and made 9-of-11 from the field, including his second three-pointer of the season. Kavaliauskas has made 7-of-13 three-pointers in his two-year career.
*Joseph Jones scored 13 points with 6 rebounds, 3 steals, 3 assists and 1 block. Jones has made 18 straight free throws. He now has scored 995 career points with 479 career rebounds.
*Acie Law IV scored 11 points with 7 assists and made his only three-point attempt. Law has made 11-of-22 three-pointers this season.
