February 05, 2008
Bryan Davis and Josh Carter took charge of the usually balanced Texas A&M offense and led the Aggies to their most decisive road win of the season.
Davis scored 16 points on 8-of-11 shooting, Carter added 12 and No. 18 Texas A&M cruised past Iowa State 69-51 for its fourth straight win.
Donald Sloan had 11 points and three others players had at least eight for the Aggies, who went on a 31-9 run that stretched from the end of the first half until midway through the second.
Texas A&M (19-4, 5-3 Big 12) snapped Iowa State's nine-game home winning streak and picked up just its second road win. The Aggies' other road victory was at Oklahoma State, 59-56, on Jan. 26, which came on the heels of a five-overtime loss to Baylor.
Texas A&M hasn't lost since.
"We're getting there," Aggies coach Mark Turgeon said. "We're playing with much more toughness and much more poise, home and away."
Texas A&M rallied to take a six-point edge at halftime, then put the game out of reach by hitting 11 of its first 14 shots in the second half. Davis started it with six straight points, and Carter buried a 3 to put the Aggies ahead 39-26.
Carter hit another 3-pointer and Davis added a pair of layups to make it 50-31 with 12:42 left.
"We don't care who scores the most," said Carter, who was 4-of-6 from 3-point range. "Whoever is getting it done that night is going to get the most touches. Davis played great."
Texas A&M's balance was also evident in the paint, as five different Aggies had five or more rebounds. Turgeon has been harping on his big guys to improve their rebounding -- despite the fact that Texas A&M entered play fourth in the nation in rebounding margin -- and he's finally seeing the results he's been looking for.
The Aggies kept Iowa State (13-10, 3-5) off the glass for the opening 7:35 of the second half and outrebounded their opponent for the 21st time in 23 games.
"For as big as we are, we're not a great rebounding team. The numbers say that we are, but we're not," Turgeon said. "The last two games we've done a good job of boxing out."
Jiri Hubalek scored 18 points to lead the Cyclones, who lost for the fourth time in five games. Wesley Johnson, playing with a sore left ankle, added 13.
"When they got open shots, they was pretty successful at knocking them down," Hubalek said. "I think the game was lost on defense."
Texas A&M jumped ahead 19-12 midway through the first half, but Iowa State responded with a 10-0 run. Johnson and Bryan Peterson hit back-to-back 3s, Hubalek buried a turnaround jumper and Craig Brackins nailed a dunk to give the Cyclones a 22-19 lead. It would prove to be their last one of the night.
The Aggies closed out the first half with a 11-2 run, capped by a dunk from freshman DeAndre Jordan, and led 30-24 at the break.
A major snowstorm that pounded Iowa on Tuesday night left the crowd at Hilton Coliseum lighter than usual. The fans who braved the bad weather saw Iowa State coach Greg McDermott fall to 0-7 against ranked teams.
"Give them credit. For 20 minutes, we showed that we belonged with a team that is as good as A&M, and in the second half they showed why they are a top 20 team," McDermott said. "And we showed why we're not like A&M."
It was all or nothing from the field for both teams in opening half. Neither one grabbed an offensive rebound, and they combined to shoot just four free throws. But there was a milestone. With a 3 early in the game, Iowa State's Rahshon Clark became the first player in Big 12 history with 1,000 points and 100 steals, blocks and 3-pointers.
Texas A&M has six players averaging at least eight points a game, which comes in handy when one of them has an off night. Forward Joseph Jones was held to just four points, but Davis picked up the slack in the paint.
"Nobody sees a problem with it," Sloan said. "I guess sharing the ball is key. We've been doing it the last four games and we've come on top."
POSTGAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH GREG MCDERMOTT (IOWA STATE)
?I thought in the first half we executed our defensive game plan well enough to really keep us in the game, and had we done anything on offense we could?â„¢ve had a nice lead at half. We took a lot of shots early and our plan was to go inside early. As the half wore on, we got better than that. Derrick Roland hadn?â„¢t hit a three-point basket in Big 12 play. Once he did, we had to change our game plan.?
?Texas A&M plays well together, and unselfish. We just had too many guys who finished 1-for-7, 1-for-8 that had good looks at the basket. I really felt like for us to beat a team like that we had to have everyone get their average and we had to have someone play extraordinary.?
?I thought rebounding was going to be a huge piece to this game, and we were able to battle pretty well. I was happy to see Wes get rebounds in traffic because I hadn?â„¢t seen that in practice the last few days. It?â„¢s nice to have him back on the floor.?
JIRI HUBALEK (IOWA STATE)
?I think we just didn?â„¢t execute today. They gave us some different looks and they made us pay for it. Against teams like Texas A&M we have to show up for all 40 minutes, and today we didn?â„¢t.?
?Offensively we had some good looks, but we needed to finish. We didn?â„¢t finish, and that was the difference. I think the game was lost on defense, so we?â„¢ll come back in practice and work on it for our next game.?
ALEX THOMPSON (IOWA STATE)
?Texas A&M has a lot of depth on their front line and a lot of big bodies. We let them get too deep a few times, and they made plays inside.?
HEAD COACH MARK TURGEON (TEXAS A&M)
?We are very versatile. Iowa State plays a certain way, and makes certain players have to step up. Bryan Davis was good in the second half. He really used his quickness. I was proud of our post guys.?
?For as big as we are, we aren?â„¢t a very good rebounding team. Our numbers say we are, but we are not. We have really harped on that in practice, and we did a good job on Wesley Johnson and Rahshon Clark tonight.?
BRYAN DAVIS (TEXAS A&M)
?I don?â„¢t really look at the stast, I just go out and play. I was ready to play in the second half. We didn?â„¢t really play well in the first half, only being up by six at the half.?
JOSH CARTER (TEXAS A&M)
?Bryan (Davis) played really well, but overall we were pretty balanced. That?â„¢s how we want to play.?