Texas A&M
OKLAHOMA STATE
Texas A&M 46, Oklahoma State 44
Feb 11, 2006 | Men's Basketball
February 11, 2006
Joseph Jones sank a jumper with 1.1 seconds left Saturday to lift Texas A&M to a 46-44 win over Oklahoma State, which played without Coach Eddie Sutton, who was injured in a car accident.
Jones scored 15 and grabbed eight rebounds for the Aggies (15-7, 5-6 Big 12), who shot 17 of 42.
Texas A&M led by as many as seven points in the second half, but made only two field goals in the final 13 minutes to allow the Cowboys (13-11, 3-7) to come back.
Mario Boggan's layup with 2:20 left tied the game at 44-44. The Cowboys had a chance to take only their second lead of the game with 20 seconds to go, but Jamaal Brown missed a layup.
A&M point guard Acie Law then moved the ball up the court and set up Jones for his game-winning shot.
JamesOn Curry scored 13 to lead Oklahoma State.
Earlier Saturday, Sutton was released from a hospital in Stillwater. His son, Sean, coached the Cowboys.
Athletic department spokesman Steve Buzzard said the elder Sutton suffered no serious injuries in the wreck on Friday.
Postgame Quotes
OKLAHOMA STATE ASSISTANT COACH SEAN SUTTON: "Tough loss for us. I thought it was another tough loss for us. It makes six for us now that come down to the final possession. Both teams played desperate, you would expect them both to play that way. Both need to win. Best defensively we've played in a long time. Maybe all year. The team really fed off of Marcus Dove. He held Acie Law to 3-11 for eight points. Law scored 35 in Stillwater earlier this year so that was good. Joseph Jones is as tough a post player as there is and to hold him to only 11 shots is good defense. We did what we needed to do defensively, but we are in a scoring funk. We are having a tough time making shots and scoring points. I never thought offense would be a problem with this team. We are not great from outside but we are pretty good shooters from the mid-range. The last two games our looks just didn't go. Give Texas A&M credit, they played good defense."
TEXAS A&M HEAD COACH BILLY GILLISPIE: "Our thoughts and prayers are with Coach (Sutton). He's one of the greatest there has ever been and his son did a great job tonight and will follow in his footsteps and they will never lose a step. It was encouraging to see how concerned our players were for Coach Sutton. They all called together and knew they should lift him up in their prayers. It was a great win for us today. It was a hard fought game by two teams playing gritty, hard, tough, and determined. To me this is beautiful basketball. Most people wouldn't look at a 46-44 game and think it was beautiful, but I really do. The uglier the better for us. This one was really high on the ugly scale. They were tough, our guys were extremely tough and it was a great win for us. They don't panic. We might mess up, but we never panic. I never saw panic in our eyes. Both teams today could easily have seven, eight, or nine wins in conference. Sometimes it goes in, sometimes it doesn't. It was a good week for us. We have a tough one next Saturday and we are going to prepare tough for that. I have more respect for Baylor than any other team in the Big 12 for what they are doing, what they have had to go through, and the way Coach Drew is doing it. It is going to be a grudge match."
TEXAS A&M GUARD ACIE LAW: "I knew either I was going to have a good look or they would come and help on me. If they helped on me, coach told me that Joseph Jones would be open on the roll. I saw them come to help and Big Joe was open. The fans were great for us today. We just keep encouraging them to come out. We have a couple more games left at home and we just hope they come out and give us that advantage. You have to give OSU a lot of credit. They kept us out of rhythm. We knew we had an opportunity to win today with this game being at home. Beating great programs like OSU help build your program, and our program is going in the right direction."
TEXAS A&M FORWARD JOSEPH JONES: "In a way I knew the ball was going to come to me, and in a way I didn't know. Coach told Acie Law that I would be open on the roll and he just hit me. I saw them help out on Acie when he drove, and I knew I was going to have a shot. It was the same shot I hit in Stillwater, Okla. earlier this year. Coach told me in film after that game that it was a lucky shot, and he said the same thing today. I don't believe him though. I was frustrated after missing two free-throws down the stretch, so it felt great to hit that last shot."
Texas A&M Postgame Notes
- OSU shot a season-low .308 from the field which was also the lowest allowed by A&M this year. The Cowboys came in leading the Big 12 and were ranked seventh nationally in field goal percentage.
- OSU's 44 points were the fewest ever allowed in Big 12 game by the Aggies. The last time A&M allowed that many points in a conference game was in 1991, when it lost to SMU in Dallas (44-38) in the old Southwest Conference.
- OSU's 12 field goals also were a season low (18 vs. Texas). A&M's 17 field goals tied a season low (17 vs. Oklahoma).
- Joseph's Jones winning basket was A&M's first buzzer beater since 2003, when Bradley Jackson made a short banker to beat Missouri, 73-71, with :02 left.
- OSU made .924 from the free throw line, best by an A&M opponent this year. The Aggies shot a season low .450 from the line (9-20).
- OSU had 10 assists and 18 turnovers. A&M has limited 17 of 22 opponents to a negative ratio this season, which three others have had just an even ratio.
- The win ends OSU's 12 game winning streak in the series. The Cowboys had won five straight in College Station.
- A&M is 14-2 at home this season and is 31-5 at home under Billy Gillispie.
- Today's attendance of 11,314 was the third largest of the season at Reed Arena.
- Acie Law scored just eight points, tying his season low (in 8 min. vs. Grambling), but contributed 7 assists, 4 rebounds and 2 steals. Law had scored in double figures in 14 straight games.
- Joseph Jones scored a game-high 15 points with a game-high 8 rebounds.
- Antanas Kavaliauskas had 5 rebounds, a career-high for a Big 12 game (4 in three others). His overall best is 7 against Texas Southern.
- A&M is 12-2 when leading at halftime and is 14-1 when leading with 5:00 remaining.
- The Aggies are 13-3 when making at least 40 percent from the field.
- A&M is 15-3 when its opponents make under 50 percent from the field and are 7-0 when they make under 40 percent.
- A&M is 8-1 when out-rebounding its opponents. Coming into today's game, the Aggies had been out-rebounded in five straight games and had been out-boarded in all but two Big 12 games.
- A&M is 7-3 in games decided by 5 points or fewer.
