November 28, 2007
Donald Sloan had 15 points and eight assists to help No. 9 Texas A&M remain undefeated with a 76-63 victory over Alabama on Wednesday night.
Alabama stayed with the Aggies (7-0) got within two points early in the second half but wouldn't get any closer.
The Crimson Tide (3-2) cut A&M's lead to 50-47 on a 3-pointer by Rico Pickett with about 12 minutes left before Josh Carter answered with a 3 for the Aggies. Sloan extended his arms above his head to signal the 3 just before the shot swished through the net.
Sloan then stole the ball from Mykal Riley and made a layup to make it 55-47.
It was Texas A&M's first game in College Station since capturing the NIT Season Tip-Off championship with a 70-47 win over Ohio State on Friday at Madison Square Garden.
Crimson Tide star Richard Hendrix, who finished with 19 points and 12 rebounds, had a layup with about eight minutes left to cut A&M's lead to six points, but Dominique Kirk scored four quick points to make it 61-51.
Hendrix made two free throws before the Aggies scored five straight points punctuated by Chinemelu Elonu's dunk to take a 66-53 lead with five minutes left to put this one out of reach.
Kirk added 14 points and Carter had 13 for the Aggies.
Post game Quotes and Notes
Texas A&M Senior Guard Dominique Kirk: ?Alabama was a great team that played very hard. The whole game they kept playing hard and kept fighting. I thought that (Donald) Sloan did a great job finding me. It?â„¢s great that we have two guys that can play the point. To us it doesn?â„¢t matter who scores the most as long as we get the job done.?
Alabama Head Coach Mark Gottfried: ?We got beat by a very good team tonight. Coach Turgeon is and will continue doing a great job there. That A&M team is a team that understands their roles. They make key plays at key times. Our guys played hard. I loved my guy?â„¢s effort tonight but we just made too many errors at key times. We just can?â„¢t afford to make mistakes like that against a good team. Texas A&M has enough weapons that they don?â„¢t have to just rely on one great player. They are going to play good defense and rebound well every night. Their defense wore on us and I think our legs were kind of dead at the end of the game.?
(On the contributions of Richard Hendrix): ?He?â„¢s huge. He is a great player. He played 36 minutes tonight which is probably too much but we needed him to. He is a terrific player for us and we just need to have some guys step up around him.?
Texas A&M Head Coach Mark Turgeon: ?I was really pleased tonight. We didn?â„¢t have very good practices the last two days. Our young guys are still getting used to people saying good things about them, so I was very nervous about tonight?â„¢s game, especially knowing how good Alabama is. I thought that (Dominique) Kirk and (Donald) Sloan were great tonight. (Derrick) Roland?â„¢s defense was through the roof. Alabama is a very good rebounding team and we out rebounded them by eight. I also thought that (Chinemelu) Elonu gave us a big lift off the bench.?
(On the importance of Dominique Kirk): ?Dominique Kirk, I wouldn?â„¢t trade that guy for anybody. He just steps up and keeps making play after play.?
(On the impact of the younger players): ?For us to be as good as people expect us to be, our sophomore class is going to have to be really good. Derrick Roland, Brian Davis, Donald Sloan and (Junior) Elonu have all been playing very well so far. I believe that in your sophomore year you either become a player or you don?â„¢t and those four guys have a chance to do that.?
?Our guys learned tonight that things can not be going well, we were in foul trouble, we were turning the ball over and the other team was just balling, and we can still survive and win handily.?
A&M NOTES:
*Donald Sloan scored 15 points with a career-high 8 assists and a career-best 6 rebounds.
*Derrick Roland had a career-high 7 rebounds to go along with 6 points.
*Junior Elonu posted a career-high 3 blocks and added 6 points and 4 rebounds.
*Bryan Davis tied his career-best with 3 blocks and scored 8 points with 6 rebounds.
*A&M is 7-0 for the fourth straight year.
*A&M had four players score in double figures for the second straight game. The Aggies have had at least three players in double figures in all seven games.
*A&M made a season-high 73.7 percent from the free throw line, the first time this season the Aggies have made better than 67 percent.
*A&M posted a 38-30 rebounding edge and has out-rebounded all seven opponents.
*Alabama shot 41.9 percent from the field, only the second A&M opponent to make better than 38 percent.
*Alabama made just 18.2 percent (2-11) from three-point range. In the last three games, A&M?â„¢s opponents have combined to make just 18.2 percent (8-44) of their three-pointers.
*A&M shot 52.8 percent from the field, the fourth time this season the Aggies have made better than 50 percent.
*A&M made a season-best 50.0 percent (6-12) from three-point range.
*The Aggies had a season-high 18 turnovers.
*A&M has won 39 straight regular season non-conference home games. The Aggies have won seven straight home games overall and 28 of their last 29.