Texas A&M
9-1
SMU
3-5
Aggies Win Fifth Straight, Defeat SMU 66-56
Dec 17, 2008 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 17, 2008
Post Game Audio [mp3]:
Head Coach Turgeon
Players Carter & Davis
SMU Head Coach Doherty
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) -- Josh Carter scored 14 points, Bryan Davis grabbed 11 rebounds and Texas A&M defeated SMU 66-56 Wednesday night for the Aggies' fifth straight victory.
A 3-pointer by Carter, a steal and a layup by Carter and two inside baskets by B.J. Holmes gave the Aggies a 62-51 lead with 1:39 left.
Robert Nyakundi led SMU with 18 points. He hit two 3-pointers as the Mustangs took an early 8-2 lead, but the Aggies (9-1) came back and led 37-27 at the half.
The Mustangs have lost four of their last five.
POSTGAME QUOTES
SMU Head Coach Matt Doherty "This is the best team we've played all year. Mark (Turgeon) is a great coach. After our recent losses I wanted to see our guys fight and compete. We didn't shoot well but we fought and competed. This was (Mouhammad) Faye's first game with us in more than a year and I thought he played really well."
A&M Head Coach Mark Turgeon "We'll take this one. It was a win for us. They changed up their lineup and went small. I was proud of our defense but our offense was lacking. But once again when the game was on the line our guys stepped up. SMU is young and will only get better. They played well tonight. We tried to go to Josh as much as we could in the last 10 minutes. He's a senior and a guy that we expect to make the plays when we need them. Our offense is really struggling but I'm going to chalk it up to fatigue. I don't know why we are not starting well. I don't know what to do about it. It seems that everything we try to fix isn't showing up in games."
A&M Guard Josh Carter "It was a sloppy game. We have been talking about starting better but again it didn't happen. I wanted to shoot the ball down the stretch and help my team and that's what I did. I want the ball at the end of the game. This win is going to give us a lot of confidence going against LSU on Saturday."
A&M Forward Bryan Davis "They really didn't take too much away from us. We just have to be better with our shot selection. We weren't concentrating in the first half but we came out in the second and stopped fighting each other for rebounds. That really seemed to help us."
A&M NOTES: *Bryan Davis had 11 rebounds, his second-best total of the year (13 vs. Kent State) *Derrick Roland scored 10 points, his second-best outing of the season (13 vs. UNCW) *Donald Sloan's 6 assists were his second-high output of the year. *Josh Carter scored 14 points, his fifth straight game in double figures. *Carter has made 20 straight free throws (4-of-4 tonight). For the season, he has made 90.0 percent (36-40) from the line, which moves him into the Big 12 lead. *Chinemelu Elonu had 5 blocks, the second-most of his career. He had a career-high 6 against Florida A&M on Monday. *David Loubeau scored 8 points with 8 rebounds in just 14 minutes of play. *B.J. Holmes scored 10 points, the fourth time in the last five games he's been in double figures. Holmes also had a career-high 4 assists. *The Aggies have won 53 straight regular-season home games since an 82-80 loss to A&M-Corpus Christi on Dec. 13, 2003. *A&M has won 74 home games in the last five seasons, second only to Memphis' 76 home wins. *Mark Turgeon is 34-12 at A&M, matching the best coaching start in Big 12 history. Texas Tech's Bob Knight was also 34-12 in 2001-03.
