Texas A&M
BAYLOR
Texas A&M 97, Baylor 87
Feb 24, 2007 | Men's Basketball
February 24, 2007
Acie Law scored a season-high 31 points and Joseph Jones added 22 to help No. 8 Texas A&M beat Baylor 97-87 on Saturday.
The win is A&M's sixth straight over the Bears and is Baylor's 24th straight Big 12 conference road loss.
Instead of relying on their normally stingy defense, the Aggies got into a shootout with the struggling, but scrappy Bears. The Aggies, who entered the game allowing just 56.5 points, gave up their most points of the season to Baylor.
Texas A&M (24-4, 12-2 Big 12) led by two before Dominique Kirk scored 12 points, including two 3s, in a 2 1/2 minute span to push the Aggies lead to 58-48 with 13:45 to play. Kirk finished with 17 points.
It was their second 10-point lead of the game after they stretched their advantage to 10 on a 3 by Josh Carter early in the second half. Baylor (13-14, 3-11) then went on a 10-2 run, punctuated by a three-point play by Kevin Rogers, that cut the lead to 44-42 with just more than 16 minutes remaining.
The victory marks the first time the Aggies have won 12 conference games in the history of the Big 12.
The Bears would get close one more time when they went on an 8-0 run fueled by six points from Henry Dugat to make it 69-65 with about eight minutes left. But they wouldn't get any closer and a 3 by Law with just under six minutes left put A&M ahead 77-68.
Law's performance is just the third 30-point game of his career and the first since scoring a career-high 35 last January against Oklahoma State.
A highlight for Baylor came on Curtis Jerrells' alley-oop pass to Rogers for a two-handed dunk late in the second half. A&M's Antanas Kavaliauskas was called for a foul on the play, despite ducking to avoid being kicked by the dangling legs of the soaring Rogers.
Jerrells led Baylor with 27 points and Dugat added 22 points.
Texas A&M took advantage of 31 Baylor fouls and made 35-of-44 free throws. But Baylor shot 48 percent to stay in it against a team that entered the game allowing a nation's-best 36 percent shooting.
Baylor hasn't won a conference road game since beating the Aggies 67-61 in February 2004.
The Aggies jumped out to a 5-0 lead, never trailed and were ahead 37-31 at halftime.
Postgame Quotes & Notes
Baylor Sophomore Curtis Jerrells: "Everybody brought it. It was a nice game with a nice crowd. Every time we get together we seem to put up a good game. I think we did a good job of playing physically. They have two big guys on their side and I want to credit our big guys for holding them off and playing them tough today. The guys we have are pretty good. Some of them are nursing some injuries. Josh (Lomers), just being a freshman, has been playing some great minutes for us. Those guys are going to continue to get better, and we're going to do our best to get them easy shots. We feel that we're a better team than what our record shows. When things are going downhill like that, and we didn't expect it to, it's positive whenever your team can stay together. I have a lot of respect for my teammates, because we're not doing as well as we expected, but nobody is bickering or arguing. We're trying to just win as many games as possible."
Baylor Sophomore Henry Dugat: "We have four good guards and we wanted to win. In the beginning, coach talked about winning the game with paint points. For us to do that we were going to have to stay away from the big boys and attack. We did a lot of drives. We have faith in our team, believing that we can hit (free throws). When you get to the line it's about focus. We have to keep fighting. It's what we have to do. It's a great place to play. They have a great crowd and a great team."
Baylor Head Coach Scott Drew: "I thought we did some things well. We scored 87 points and shot 48 percent from the field. That is very good against a tough A&M defensive team. To give up 97 points and to shoot 65 percent from the free throw line, you're not going to win on the road against a top ten team like that. It was not enough to get the win, but at the same time we did some things that were encouraging. Again, credit Acie (Law) and the A&M players for coming up big. Whenever we got close, they always had all the answers. Thats what you expect from an experienced team that is well coached. We have a young team that's had a ton of close games, you only have a few opportunities to play games, you're going to coach them to the end. I'm going to try to get our team better because next time when we play a close game, it may be a five point game, just like Texas. We had a chance to win at the end because we stayed in and competed. We weren't trying to be disrepectful or rude in any stretch of the imagination. We are going to coach our team, and our team's going to play hard until the buzzer sounds."
Texas A&M Senior Acie Law: "It's just guys out there competing. Whenever you're competing and trying to get a big victory, you can't take things personally. You're just trying to win. Baylor came out and played well, and a lot of credit to them for playing like that on the road. We're fortunate enough to come out with the victory. That's a very talented team, but they're young. We didn't have to watch every single game to know why their record is the way it is. Everytime we play them, its a tough game. They're well coached, and that's a very talented team. Dominique (Kirk) stepped up huge for us tonight. I think early in the second half he had missed a shot, and coach told him not to hesitate, just let it go. We were struggling offensively, and I think they doubled Joe. He kicked it out to Dominique, and he made a big shot. He got confidence and was able to make another one. We had 5 guys in double figures, and that was huge for us. Give them credit for never quitting. A regular team would have given up being on the road in a hostile environment."
Texas A&M Junior Joseph Jones: "They're a very physical team. They're big inside. It was a regular Big 12 game. Play is very physical in the Big 12. Lomers is a big man, and he plays physical. That's what all big men do."
Texas A&M Head Coach Billy Gillispie: "It was a real good win for us. It was an intense game. Both teams played hard. There was a lot of great defense. It was a good win for us. They have a nice team, and they keep getting better. I commend those guys for playing as hard as they did today. They played hard enough to win, but fortunately for us, they didn't. Dominique Kirk makes big shots. I told him, prior to that, if he thought about his shot again instead of catching the ball and shooting, he wasn't going to play anymore. He made two big threes. He's a good shooter, and he's a big shot maker. He's been doing that for three years. You can't think about making a shot, or trying to not miss. He was a little bit hesitant early. I told him if he's out there and he catches it when he's open, he'd better shoot it, otherwise he's not going to get to play. We did a good job of getting the ball inside, and they did a good job of doubling. Our guys threw it out to open guys, and we just have to catch it and shoot it instead of thinking about it. I'm not worried about his confidence, he's one of the toughest guys. When you're as tough mentally as he is, you don't have a confidence problem. They played really well today. They have a lot of really good players. They've been recruiting well, and they gave us all we could handle today."
A&M NOTES:
*Acie Law IV scored a season-high 31 points, his third career 30-point game. Law also added 5 assists.
*Joseph Jones scored 22 points, his second best game of the season (24 vs. Pacific). He also added 6 rebounds.
*Dominique Kirk scored a season-high 17 points, which is a career-high for a Big 12 game.
*Josh Carter scored 14 points with 6 assists and made 4-of-4 three-pointers. Carter has made 73 treys this season and is chasing the school record of 79 set by Bernard King in 1999-00.
*A&M's 24-4 record is the best in school history after 28 games and ties for the second most wins in a season (24-9 in 1978-79). The 1979-80 team set the school record with a 26-8 mark.
*A&M's 12-2 conference mark is its best since the 1980 team started 12-2 in the SWC en route to a 14-2 finish.
*A&M is 19-2 in its last 21 Big 12 games.
*A&M is 17-1 at home this season, tying the school record for home victories in a season (17-3 in 2004-05)
*A&M is 49-6 at home under Billy Gillispie, who is 64-7 at home in his last four seasons as a head coach.
*Today's crowd of 13,051 was A&M's fifth sellout this season, a school record. The old mark was four set by the 2004-05 team. A&M already has sold out next Saturday's final home game against Missouri. A&M's six sellouts will be the thrid most in the Big 12 this season.
