Texas A&M
(1-0)
McNEESE STATE
(0-1)
Aggies Open Turgeon Era With 73-50 Win Against McNeese State
Nov 09, 2007 | Men's Basketball
November 09, 2007
Mark Turgeon got his first win as Texas A&M's coach on Friday night. His debut was overshadowed by another new Aggie.
Freshman DeAndre Jordan scored 12 points and Josh Carter had 14 to lead the 16th-ranked Aggies to a 73-50 victory over McNeese State for their eighth straight win in a home opener.
The prized recruit started and wowed the crowd with four two-handed dunks, grabbed two rebounds and had a block. The 7-footer showed the kind of inside power the Aggies could have when he's paired with senior Joseph Jones. Jones had 11 points in limited action.
Turgeon, who came to Texas A&M from Wichita State, took over in April after Billy Gillispie left for Kentucky. The 42-year-old takes over a program that rose from the Big 12 basement to the NCAA tournament round of 16 in the three seasons under Gillispie.
Texas A&M (1-0) won a school-record 27 games in 2006-07, giving the Aggies three straight 20-win seasons.
The Aggies shook off a slow start to lead 41-26 at halftime and outscored McNeese State 22-9 in the opening minutes of the second half to stretch their lead 63-35.
McNeese State (0-1) was led by Jarvis Bradley with 12 points, while Rorey Lawrence and John Ford added 11 each.
Dominique Kirk and Donald Sloan took turns at point guard in A&M's first game without All-American Acie Law IV, who was the 11th pick in the NBA draft. The two combined for 15 points and Kirk had six assists.
A 3-pointer by Kirk gave the Aggies a 22-20 lead and Texas A&M outscored McNeese State 9-2 over the next two minutes, punctuated by Jordan's two-handed dunk with about seven minutes left that made it 31-22.
The normally raucous crowd wasn't too crazy on Friday, but did roar at each of Jordan's dunks. As good as his debut was, he wasn't without a couple of rookie mistakes. He was called for traveling once and missed an easy shot when it bounced off the side of the backboard.
The Cowboys took a 6-0 lead and were on top until Kirk's 3 mostly due to poor shooting by the Aggies who missed three consecutive layups at one point in the first half.
Postgame Quotes & Notes
Junior Guard Josh Carter: ?I think we are a really deep team. Our rotation can go eight or nine guys depending on who produces. We came out slow and not thinking well but Coach (Turgeon) is always intense and he let us know that we were playing unacceptably. We?™re just trying to get better every game.?
Sophomore Forward Bryan Davis: ?I just do what I can to help the team at any given moment. It is really nice having so many big guys on our team, there will never be a big drop off in that position.?
Head Coach Mark Turgeon: ?I was disappointed with our start. We need to figure something out so that we come out better. We may change our warm-up or even our starting lineup if we need to. We want for defense to be our identity. We guarded well tonight but still have to get better defensively. Our big guys have come a long way. It is nice to have them to rely on. Seeing the student section the way it was tonight gave us a good amount of excitement. We have great captains and great leaders. I have a lot of great assistant coaches but tonight towards the end of the game we had two more because I would talk in the huddle and then Joe (Jones) and Dominique (Kirk) would talk and that was really great to see. Billy (Gillispie) did an unbelievable job here the last three years and we are just trying to continue with that.?
NOTES:
*Mark Turgeon won his first game as Texas A&M?™s head coach.
*A&M?™s three perimeter starters ?- Dominique Kirk, Donald Sloan and Josh Carter ?- combined to play 75 minutes with no turnovers.
*A&M has won 35 straight regular-season non-conference home games.
*A&M is 9-1 in home openers at Reed Arena and have won eight straight.
*Senior Dominique Kirk scored 8 points with 6 assists and 0 turnovers. Kirk made 2-of-2 from three-pointer range. With 260 career assists, Kirk moves into a tie for 10th on the school?™s career list with Reggie Roberts (1980-83).
*Sophomore Bryan Davis scored 8 points with a career-high 9 rebounds, a career-best 4 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks. His previous rebounding high was 7 last year against Oklahoma State and Grambling State. His previous high in assists was two last season against Lamar.
*Freshman DeAndre Jordan scored 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting in his college debut.
*Sophomore Derrick Roland scored a career-high 7 points. His previous high was 4 last year against Saint Louis.
*Junior Josh Carter scored a game-high 14 points with 5 rebounds and made 3-of-7 three-pointers.
