December 31, 2007
Josh Carter and DeAndre Jordan scored 16 points apiece, and Texas A&M (No. 10 AP, No. 12 AP) beat Rice 68-41 Monday for its sixth straight win.
Jordan, a 7-foot freshman, also had 12 rebounds and four blocks.
Texas A&M (13-1) moved into a tie for the second-best start in school history. It's the first time since the 1959-60 season the Aggies have been 13-1.
The Aggies led by 15 at halftime and pushed their lead to 47-27 on a layup by Jordan midway through the second half. They went on a 6-0 run to make it 59-33 with about 5 minutes left.
Lawrence Ghoram had 16 points and six rebounds for Rice (3-8).
This was the Owls' first trip to College Station since their 78-56 loss to Texas A&M in the last year of Southwest Conference play in 1996.
Joseph Jones added 14 points and nine rebounds for the Aggies, who closed out the first half with an 11-0 run.
Postgame Quotes & Notes
Senior Joseph Jones
"Yeah it was one of them days. The ball wasn't falling for us, but we knew if we just kept playing defense and kept them from scoring. Then we'll eventually start making shots. We just kept playing hard with tough defense. LSU is coming in and conference is coming up, so we're trying to get better and better each and every day in practice. We just got to keep doing the same things we're doing, and keep getting better individually as well as a team."
Freshman DeAndre Jordan
"That got a lot of us into it. We came together motivated to play hard. Everything was goinng right for us. The tip in; we just crashed the boards. It landed in my hand and I tipped it back in. That gave us a nice little push to go into the second half."
Head Coach Mark Turgeon
"I was obviously happy with our defense. I thought we played from start to finish defensively. We tried to take them out of some of the things they do. Probably the only disappointment was our post defense. We let the ball come in there a little bit too easily. But I thought we really guarded. Besides defense, we gave up too many second shots. We never got it going offensively, give them credit. They did a great job defensively; they are very physical." "That one stretch at the start of the second half I thought we had a little freedom, but we just couldn't make shots today. We've shot the heck out of the ball. We were 52.5 percent going into the game tonight; we've become a much better scoring team. I'm excited about the defense, because I don't think we've guarded well the last few games. I think the guys put a lot more energy into the defense."
A&M NOTES:
*Senior Dominique Kirk started for the 110th straight game today, setting a Big 12 record. The old mark was 109 by Kansas' Aaron Miles in 2001-05. Kirk handed out 6 assists, giving him 313 in his career (ninth in A&M history). Kirk has averaged 6.5 assists in the last two games.
*A&M's 13-1 start ties for the second best in A&M history and is the best since a 13-1 start in 1959-60. A&M also started 13-1 in 1921-22. The school's best start was in 1919-20, when the Aggies finished 19-0.
*A&M's 13-1 record is the best by a first-year head coach in school history. The old mark was 12-2 by Billy Gillispie in 2004-05.
*A&M has won 13 straight home games. The Aggies are 11-0 at Reed Arena this season.
*A&M has won 45 straight regular-season non-conference home games.
*Freshman DeAndre Jordan scored 16 points with a career-high 4 blocked shots and tied his career-best with 12 rebounds. It was Jordan's second double-double of the year.
*Senior Joseph Jones scored 14 points with a season-high 9 rebounds.
*Junior Josh Carter scored 16 points, his eighth straight game in double figures.
*Sophomore Chinemelu Elonu scored 5 points with 8 rebounds, his third straight game with at least 7 boards.
*Freshman Nathan Walkup scored 6 points with a career-high 5 rebounds.
*A&M shot a season-low .377 from the field, the first time it has been under 43 percent this year.
*Rice shot a season-low .268, the fourth A&M opponent to shoot under 30 percent this season.
*A&M posted a 51-43 rebounding margin and tied its season high with 19 offensive boards. The Aggies have out-rebounded all 14 opponents.
*A&M is ranked No. 10 in this week's coaches poll and are No. 12 in the AP poll. A&M has been ranked for 29 straight weeks starting with the preseason poll last year. Prior to this streak, the Aggies had been ranked a total of 27 weeks in its history.
*A&M scored 44 points in the paint today, its third straight game with at least 40. The Aggies have scored at least 20 points in the paint in all 14 games.