Texas A&M
TEXAS TECH
Texas Tech 77, Texas A&M 75
Feb 13, 2007 | Men's Basketball
February 13, 2007
Jarrius Jackson hit a jumper at the buzzer to give Texas Tech a 77-75 win over No. 6 Texas A&M on Tuesday night, ending a five-game losing streak for the Red Raiders.
Acie Law tied the game with a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 6 seconds left, before Jackson drove the length of the court and pulled up for the winning score. The crowd sat in stunned silence for a few seconds while officials looked at a replay of the basket before declaring it good.
Jackson finished with 31 points and helped coach Bob Knight avoid matching the worst losing streak in his career. The only time Knight lost six straight was in 1970-71, his last season with Army.
The win is Tech's second of the season over the Aggies and they remain the only Big 12 team to beat A&M (21-4, 9-2 Big 12) this season.
The loss breaks a five-game winning streak for A&M and also snaps a streak of 21-straight home wins.
The Red Raiders (16-10, 5-6)led 74-70 before a putback by Joseph Jones got A&M within two with 32 remaining. Charlie Burgess hit a free throw to make it 75-72 before Law's basket.
Law led the Aggies with 23 points and Jones and Antanas Kavaliauskas added 18 each.
Texas A&M led by double digits throughout the first half and early in the second half, but the Red Raiders took the lead with 10 minutes to go. The game was back and forth for a span after that with no team getting ahead by more than a basket before Texas Tech went ahead 67-63 on a jumper by Decensae White with 3:36 remaining.
Law got A&M back within 2 on a jumper of his own before Jackson and Martin Zeno hit back-to-back baskets to give Tech a 71-65 lead. Zeno had 19 points and six assists and White added 10 points.
Texas A&M led 52-45 when Knight drew a technical for jawing with an official about a foul call. Law made one of the technical foul shots to push the lead to eight, but the Red Raiders looked inspired after Knight's outburst and outscored the Aggies 8-2 over the next 2 1/2 minutes. A reverse layup by Zeno with about 10 minutes to go gave Tech its first lead of the game, 55-54.
The Red Raiders trailed by as many as 11 points early in the second half, but got back in it by laying off of the outside shot and aggressively attacking the basket. Threes by White and Jackson on consecutive possessions cut the lead to 47-43 with about 14 minutes remaining.
The Aggies entered the game having held 35 straight opponents to less than 50 percent shooting, which was the longest streak in the nation. The Red Raiders shot 51.9 percent to break the streak.
Postgame Quotes
Texas Tech Senior Jarrius Jackson: "I looked at the clock and saw that we had six seconds and I just wanted to take it as deep as I could. I think I got a good shot though and I took it. (Marlon) Pompey picked me up and I think he may have thought the clock ran out. I got a good look and took it. It was a big win for us. We've been on a 5-game losing streak. We wanted to come here and play hard and get back on track. In tough places like this, you know the crowd is going to be into it and they are going to make their runs. We knew we had to maintain and try to fight back. I think that if I would have taken it all the way down to the rack, they would have collapsed on me so I pulled up."
Texas Tech Senior Martin Zeno: "(on second half catalyst) I think it was Decensae (White). He made a couple of big shots at the right time and kept the momentum going for us. He bounced back from the last game and showed that he really wanted to play. He came out there and produced. When we got down, we just fought back and stayed close at the end and said 'lets finish it' because we were so close to finishing the last couple of games we had to finish it."
Texas Tech Head Coach Bob Knight: "We had 14 turnovers at the end of the first half. I think we had 5 in the first five minutes of the game. We were lucky to be in the ballgame at halftime. We all miss opportunities and they missed an opportunity in the first half to knock us out of the game. When I walked off the court and we were seven down, I thought it all depended on how we started the second half, as it usually does in a game that you're trying to hang in with a chance to win. We probably played as well in the second half as we have at any time this year. We made plays, we stayed, we got the lead, and then continued to make plays. They made plays, too. Jackson's basket was obviously a great thing for us to wind up the game with. It was the first time in our last three games that we've made the play to win the game. We had a lot of help from everybody. I thoght that Jackson moved really well without the ball. It's a neat place to play. The enthusiasm of the people, the support they give their team, I think Billy has done a great job with the overall picture here with basketball. (On Shelby Metcalf) I think this is the first time we've come down here to play that Shelby didn't eat dinner with us the night before the game. I always really enjoyed that. That's where I kind of got to know him. I think we only played against him twice as coaches. One time I came down here, we went out in the afternoon fishing. I think that's the only time I've ever fished on a game day. He was really a good guy to be around. In a way, he reminded me of Abe Lemmons. He had a really good sense of humor. If you payed attention to what he was saying when he was talking about basketball, he said a lot of good things for coaches to know about the game of basketball. It was so easy to see how much he really liked the game of basketball. He was a good man."
Texas A&M Junior Joseph Jones: "They converted from the free throw line. They are a very good free throw shooting team. They got to the line and knocked them down. Jackson is a great player. He got the ball and made a great play. They ran the offense the way they wanted to and got easy layups. The team kept feeding me the ball and I kept trying to convert every time they got it in to me. The game is not over until the horn sounds. Acie made a great shot and we had to get back on defense. Jackson made a great shot for his team."
Texas A&M Senior Acie Law: "I made the shot and I was trying to get back to my man. Jackson went down and made a great play. Usually in those situations you try not to focus on the ball. You just try to focus on your guy. Jackson was hot all night and he capped it off with a game winner. We have to put this one behind us. I know it's a tough loss. You always want to win at home, but we lost to a great team. They came in and performed well tonight. This game is over and we have to go on to play a tough Oklahoma team and then right after that play at Oklahoma State, which is one of the toughest places to play in the Big 12. We have to come into practice with the right mindset and try to get better."
Texas A&M Head Coach Billy Gillispie: "It was a tough loss for us. They played really well. We couldn't stop them. When we got opportunities to do something special, we turned the ball over too much. They whipped us on the offensive boards at the start of the second half and we had no answer. We had a chance to get it done with only 23 minutes from Joe, we just didn't. I think we got the ball where we wanted to all night long, but you can't miss a six-inch shot. You can't bounce the ball on the post. It all came down to we didn't guard good enough. If I were to say something about our big guys it would be that they need to help more defensively. We knew what they were going to do. It's what they always do at the end of the half or end of the game. It's a good play when you have a player like him (Jarrius Jackson) and he made a really good play to win a game."
