Texas A&M
17-7, 3-6
Kansas State
16-7, 5-4
Aggies Fall To Kansas State, 65-60
Feb 07, 2009 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 7, 2009
Post Game Audio [mp3]:
Head Coach Turgeon
Players Elonu & Davis
KSU Head Coach
KSU Players
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) -Jacob Pullen scored 16 points and had one of two key 3-pointers late to lead Kansas State to a 65-60 win over Texas A&M on Saturday.
The win is the fifth straight for the Wildcats (16-7, 5-4 Big 12) who have made an impressive turnaround from an 0-4 start in Big 12 play.
The Aggies (17-7, 3-6) had cut the lead to one thanks to a 7-2 run before Pullen and Fred Brown scored consecutive 3-pointers to give Kansas State a 64-57 lead with less than a minute to play.
Texas A&M's Donald Sloan hit a 3-pointer after that, but Pullen made one of two free throws and the Wildcats held on for the win.
Kansas State's Denis Clemente, who recently scored 44 against Texas, had 12 of his 14 points in the last 13 minutes.
The Aggies were led by Josh Carter who had 14 points.
POSTGAME QUOTES & NOTES
Kansas State Head Coach Frank Martin
Our guys made good reads on their ball screens to get some good shots toward the end of the game. If we are going to win constantly on the road in this league, we have to make shots and play defense. I heard a coach once say "defense travels well." We have to play defense. I give credit to our guys for playing great defense to close this one out. We missed some shots at the beginning, but our guys stayed the course, kept at it, and got us a win. We have to make the tough shots. We are playing with a lot more confidence than we were at the beginning of the season. I have not once been concerned with our record, or been disappointed in our guys play. I know that our guys can produce, and I know the wins will come. At the beginning I was wondering how our young guys would handle it, but they have done well with maintaining their focus."
Kansas State Sophomore Guard Jacob Pullen
Tonight we really concentrated on trying to figure out when they switch on ball screens, so that we could get open looks. We practice hard before we go out to an away game. We really work on our intensity, and practice going hard the whole time. We have been able to figure out how we work together. We know that we have guys that will be there to score when other guys are struggling. These wins against the University of Texas, and against Texas A&M, give us a lot of confidence for the rest of the season."
A&M Junior Chinemelu Elonu
"It's pretty frustrating. We have won a lot of our games at home, and to drop this one hurts pretty bad. I guess tomorrow is a new day for us and we have to pick it back up. They beat us on the offensive glass. They got many second-chance rebounds and points. They played tougher than we played and we have to fix that next practice."
(on moving forward) "Honestly, we have to play a lot tougher. These guys played a lot tougher than we did. Every time we play someone, we have to give it our all. Sometimes we don't, and that's including myself. We've just got to know that the Big 12 is a tough conference and you can't just not come to certain games and expect to win. You have to bring it all the time. From now on, we have to bring it every game and every practice."
A&M Junior Bryan Davis
"It was frustrating, not only for me to be in foul trouble, but to see my team play the way they played. I'm not putting the blame on them though, that includes myself. We just got out-toughed today. There's a lot of things you wouldn't even see, but to go back and look at it, they were tougher than us. Off ball screens, we didn't do a good job getting our guards open. They hit us in the mouth and we didn't respond well."
(on K-State's three-pointers late) "Definitely those were just good shots. Their guys stepped up and made shots today. Our plan was to switch to ball screens late in that play, and it came down to four seconds left on the clock, and he (Jacob Pullen) pulled up and hit a nice shot. (Fred) Brown hit another one in the corner, which was another great shot. We had a hand there and everything, and they just made a good shot on us."
(on the pace of the game) "When we run a lot more, we have a better chance of getting easy buckets. Easy buckets can help out our offense. Whenever we do run with the ball, we put pressure on the defense and it's a lot harder to get into a set defense. We have to try to do that more, push the ball up the court and put pressure on their players, and make them play tougher team defense."
(on moving forward) "We have to get better in every aspect of our team. From the first man to the last man, we must get better. We need everyone on our team to be focused. We have yet to win a road ball game in the Big 12, and that's one thing we are looking forward to do. I feel like we're going to come out and we will play well."
A&M Coach Mark Turgeon
"I thought K-State played really well. They made big shots at the end. Pullen's three obviously was big, right after we'd cut it to one. I felt they were in control the whole game. I felt we were walking uphill the whole game, but give K-State credit. They were tougher than we were, and they made plays to win the game."
(on Pullen's 3-pointer) "Their kid hit the shot. I wouldn't change what we did defensively in that possession. That kid hit a tough shot. They did a good job executing their offense. We told them exactly what would happen on that play. We took a chance on the switch, Bryan (Davis) was right there and the kid knocked it down. Then we came down, had a wide-open look at the other end, and didn't make the shot. We need to make plays at the end of a game. It's been a tough week. I think the break is coming at a good time for us."
(on the team's mental state) "We'll be fine. We don't play till Saturday. We're down, though. This hurts. We felt we let one get away Wednesday (at Oklahoma) that we had, and today we didn't play well. But give K-State a lot of credit, because they had a lot to do with the way we played. They really guard you and they're tough physically. It was a big game. You want to take care of your home court. This one hurts. This will take a while. But we'll be fine, and we're going to get better this week.
"I think we're a good home team, it just maybe wasn't meant to be today. We've got a lot of work to do. We've got a tough road ahead of us, but there's a lot of basketball ahead of us. We told the team in the locker room that our first NCAA tourney team was 3-6 and won seven straight (in Big 12 play), so we have to believe that we can do it too. We'll see. We'll get better this week. Obviously we have to become a better road team than we've been. I believe in our guys. We kind of played in a panic today, because we were always behind. But I believe in our team. I thought we were playing really well going into this game, we just didn't play well today."
(on K-State being tougher today) "Well, it's things like when you are double-teamed and dribble off your knees, or we have the ball and they strip it out of our hands. I think there were a lot of plays like that in the game. We played a little more tough the second half, especially the start of the second half. Toughness is being able to get into your offense and make a pass against pressure, handle (things like) that. I thought we dictated better offensively in the second half, I just thought they were a little bit tougher than we were in the game. and they were tough enough to step up and make big shots."
(on the pace of the game) "Well, Bryan Davis being in foul trouble hurt us. I thought Chin (Elonu) got tired at times. Our defense let down in the second half during that stretch. We were scoring, but we stopped guarding. That was the tough part. We wanted to keep running as much as we could and we couldn't do it. Our execution in the half-court was pretty good in the second half. We got fouled some, and we've got to do a better job of making open ones and knocking down free throws."
TEXAS A&M NOTES
*The Aggies are 3-6 in Big 12 play for the first time since 2006. That A&M team won its last seven regular season games to finish 10-6 in the Big 12.
*Chinemelu Elonu scored 9 points with 10 rebounds, just shy of his eighth double-double. It was the eighth time this season he's reached double figures in rebounding. Elonu also added 5 blocked shots, matching his career-high in a conference game. It was the fourth time this year he's had at least 5 blocks.
*Josh Carter scored 14 points, tied his season-best with 8 rebounds and added a season-high 6 assists. Carter also made a pair of three-pointers to run his career total of 271, tying him for fifth in the history of the Big 12. Carter has scored 1,411 career points.
*Donald Sloan scored 12 points, his 16th double-figure game of the year.
*Derrick Roland had 6 points and a career-high 3 blocked shots.
*A&M is 0-6 in Big 12 play when it has at least 13 turnovers. The Aggies are 3-0 when they have fewer than 13 turnovers.
*This is the first time this season that the Aggies have lost when their opponent has scored 66 points or fewer. A&M is now 12-1 this season when its opponent scores 66 points or fewer.
*In its Big 12 losses, the Aggies have made 63 percent from the free throw line. In its Big 12 wins, A&M has made 69 percent from the line.
