Texas A&M
Oklahoma
Texas A&M 56, Oklahoma 49
Feb 17, 2007 | Men's Basketball
February 17, 2007
Joseph Jones and Acie Law scored 21 points each and No. 6 Texas A&M rebounded from its second conference loss to beat Oklahoma 56-49 Saturday.
Jones, despite leaving the floor with assistance twice in the second half because of minor injuries, went 8-of-12 from the field for Texas A&M (22-4, 10-2 Big 12), which maintained its spot atop the conference standings. Jones' point total matched his second highest of the season.
The Aggies were coming off a 77-75 home loss to Texas Tech on Tuesday.
David Godbold made a career-high five 3-pointers in seven attempts and scored a career-high 20 points for Oklahoma (15-10, 6-6), which had hoped to bolster its NCAA tournament credentials with an upset. Texas A&M swept its season series against Oklahoma this season after going 1-25 against the Sooners before that.
The game pitted the two teams that entered Saturday ranked 1-2 in the Big 12 in scoring defense, and true to form, the Sooners and Aggies staged a low-scoring contest.
The Sooners led 38-37 as late as the 7-minute mark before Texas A&M scored eight straight points to take control. A reverse layup by Law put the Aggies ahead 45-38 with 5:05 left.
Michael Neal pulled Oklahoma within four on a three-point play with 3:59 left, but Jones answered with a 3-pointer 18 seconds later, and the Sooners came no closer than four points after that.
Law, a 78.4 percent free-throw shooter, missed the front end of two one-and-one opportunities but rebounded the second miss, was fouled and made both shots to push the Aggies' lead to 50-43 with 1:30 left. He made four more free throws in the final 32.6 seconds to seal the win.
Oklahoma led for much of the first half, limiting the Aggies to 36.4-percent shooting. Texas A&M scored only two baskets during a 9-minute stretch late in the half, allowing the Sooners to turn a two-point lead into a 26-16 margin. The Sooners led 26-19 at halftime.
But Oklahoma, which committed only five first-half turnovers, took just 5 minutes in the second half to match that total. The Sooners, after going 11-of-23 from the field before halftime, went 7-of-30 in the second half.
Texas A&M regained the lead at 31-30 on a dunk by Donald Sloan with 15:24 left.
Besides Godbold, the only other Oklahoma player to reach double figures in scoring was Nate Carter, who had 10 points. Law and Jones were the only two Aggies to score more than five points.
