Texas A&M
OKLAHOMA
Texas A&M 70, Oklahoma 61
Jan 27, 2007 | Men's Basketball
January 27, 2007
Antanas Kavaliauskas scored 20 points and Acie Law added 19, including 12 in the last four minutes, as No. 6 Texas A&M beat Oklahoma 70-61 on Saturday to snap a 14-game losing streak to the Sooners.
The win was A&M's 19th straight at home.
Oklahoma (11-8, 3-4 Big 12) cut the lead to two twice in the second half. The second time, a pair of free throws by Nate Carter made it 53-51 with about five minutes left, but A&M (17-3, 5-1) answered with a quick jumper by Dominique Kirk.
Then Law took over. He made three free throws and a basket before dazzling the crowd with an off-balance layup that drew a foul. He hit that free throw and added two more to stretch the lead to 65-53. Law added a pair of free throws with 52 seconds remaining.
The Aggies were down by one at halftime but outscored Oklahoma 7-2 in the opening minutes of the second half to take a 35-31 lead and never trailed again.
Neither team made a basket for a 4-minute stretch midway through the second half until Law's layup with 7:26 to go ended the drought. Longar Longar scored the Sooners' first basket in more than five minutes with his layup with 6:14 left.
The Sooners shot just 34 percent, but stayed in the game by making 19 of 21 free throws. Carter led Oklahoma with 19 points and made all 13 of his free throws.
A&M, which leads the nation in defensive field-goal percentage, has held 31 straight teams to less than 50 percent shooting -- the nation's longest streak.
It was A&M's first win over Oklahoma since 1998 and just its second in the 27-game series.
Oklahoma, which led by as many as seven points in the first half, was ahead 29-28 at halftime.
A&M coach Billy Gillispie got his first technical of the season when he fell to the ground and remained sprawled on his back near the bench for a few seconds after Joseph Jones was called for a charge late in the first half.
First-year Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel also drew a technical. His came in the second half when he argued a no-call.
Josh Carter added 13 points for A&M, making both of his 3s and all five free throws. Jones, who averages 13.6 points per game, had seven points and seven rebounds.
Texas A&M vs. Oklahoma
January 27, 2007
Postgame Quotes
Oklahoma Sophomore Austin Johnson: "After both of the losses coach commented that he's seeing improvement in us. Its tough losing though. Coming in, we knew that (Acie) Law and (Josh) Carter could both shoot. We knew those players from playing them last year. We knew that they were going to make plays, and they have some big posts down low that can make plays too. As the game goes on, people start to wear down. That's always a factor. I think we could have executed better as the game went on. I think we took some bad shots there at the end."
Oklahoma Senior Nate Carter: "It was tough. Antanas (Kavaliuaskas) is a good player. They have a lot of good post players. We were just trying to not give them angles to the basket. They were just strong. We were battling them, but it wasn't good enough. They're a deep team. They were running in a lot of guys. Some of those guys weren't even on the scouting report. They're a good team though. We knew that Antanas was a good player. We knew the assignment that we had, and we didn't accomplish that. He only missed two shots. Obviously we didn't do a good job on that. Hopefully we can fix that by the time they come to Norman."
Oklahoma Head Coach Jeff Caple: "First of all I want to congratulate A&M. They made some plays down the stretch. (Acie) Law was a little bit too much for us down the stretch. I'm proud of our guys for how hard we fought, and their effort. The fact remains that we still lost. We didn't come here to lose, and we're hurt. We felt like this was a game we had a chance to win. We did some things in the first half that put us in good position. We didn't get a good start to the second half. We missed two layups to start the half and allowed them to take the lead. That got the crowd back into it and gave them momentum. We'll use this to get better. Acie Law's a very good point guard. He knows how to pick his spots and he's the leader of their team. There's no question about that. Really good guards understand how to do that. He understands how to get fouled, how to pick his spots, how to get his teammates involved, and when that's not working he can do things to create opportunities for himself. He's a tough guy to guard."
Texas A&M Senior Acie Law: "We weren't playing well in the first half. I don't know what the problem was. We can't have stuff like that if we're going to achieve what we're trying to achieve. It all starts with me. I have to do a better job of getting my guys ready to go. Oklahoma's a great team. They caused us make mistakes and get off to a bad start. They came out on the road and put themselves in a position to win. Coach sent us a message that if you don't play well you're not going to play. We all know that, and we didn't come out with the intensity he was looking for, so he put us on the bench. When he put us back in, we got things going. At the end of the game I was trying to be aggressive. Coach just put me in situations where I had scoring opportunities. I was able to finish some plays, but it shouldn't have come down to that."
Texas A&M Junior Antanas Kavaliauskas: "After we lost to Texas Tech, we knew we had to pick it up in practice. I thought we did a great job in practice getting ready."
Texas A&M Head Coach Billy Gillispie: "It was a good win. They have a really good team. They were physically tough. Its no different than the way we've always tried to approach a game. I've said this a thousand times this year and I think I'm right. I think its an embarrassment for anyone to assume that you didn't get their best shot, no matter where you're ranked. I think its a slap in the face to the coaches and the teams in the league. I think the coaches in this league are too good, and the players are too good for that to ever happen. We've been consistently getting the ball inside, but we haven't finished plays consistently. We missed 16 shots that were either layups or inside the paint. That's what will put yourself in precarious positions. You have to make baskets when you get the ball close to the basket. You can't do as well as you want to if you are not going to finish plays. We did some good stuff in the first half, but we put them on the line. We couldn't make transition baskets. We didn't carry out our assignments like we were supposed to. Antanas (Kavaliuaskas) is an awfully good player. I thought he was really tough on the boards today. I thought he was really good defensively. I think Acie could play better from start to finish. He's been awfully good in crunch time and you wouldn't trade that for anything. I think he could be more assertive and more aggressive. Instead of scoring 19 I think he could score 34 if his mindset changed a little bit. We ask him to do a lot, so I know thats physically taxing."
A&M NOTES:
*Today's win was A&M's first against Oklahoma since 1998-99 (74-72 in the first meeting at Reed Arena), ending a 14-game Sooners' winning streak in the series.
*A&M has won 19 straight home games, the second longest streak in school history (record: 30 in 1959-63). The Aggies have won eight straight Big 12 home games.
*A&M is 47-5 at Reed Arena under Billy Gillispie, with a 15-4 mark in Big 12 games. The Aggies are 14-0 at home this season.
*A&M's 17-3 start matches the best in school history after 20 games (the 1959-60 team also started 17-3). The 1919-20 team finished 19-0.
*Today's attendance of 13,048 was the fourth largest crowd in Texas A&M history and was the second straight sellout. A&M has had nine sellouts at Reed Arena with seven coming in the last three seasons under Billy Gillispie.
*Oklahoma made a season-low 33.9 percent from the field. A&M has held 31 straight opponents under 50 percent field goal accuracy, the longest streak in the nation. The Aggies are 14-0 this season when their opponents make under 40 percent. A&M has held four of its last five opponents under 38 percent.
*A&M had a season-low 7 turnovers with 18 assists.
*Oklahoma matched its season low with 8 turnovers, the lowest total by an A&M opponent this season.
*A&M made 3-of-6 from three-point range, its fewest three-point attempts of the season.
*A&M had a 30-20 edge in points in the paint. The Aggies have not been ourscored in the paint this season and have scored at least 20 points in the paint in every game.
*Oklahoma's Nate Carter made 13-of-13 from the free throw line, the third best performance by an opposing player in school history and the best since Baylor's David Wesley made 16-of-16 in 1990-91.
*A&M's Antanas Kavaliauskas scored 20 points (8-of-10 field goals), his third 20-point effort of the season.
*A&M's Acie Law scored 19 points (16 in the second half), tied his season high with 6 rebounds and added 7 assists. Law made 8-of-10 from the free throw line, a season high for free throws made and attempted.
*A&M's Josh Carter scored 13 points and made 2-of-2 from three point range. For the season, Carter is making 50.0 percent (49-of-98) from three-point range.
