Texas A&M
13-5,2-2
OKLAHOMA
11-7,2-2
Aggies Rally Back To Stop Sooners, 65-62
Jan 19, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 19, 2010
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COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) - Donald Sloan had 16 points including the go-ahead jumper with 32 seconds remaining and a pair of free throws seconds later to give Texas A&M a 65-62 win over Oklahoma on Tuesday night.
The win ended a two-game losing streak for the Aggies (13-5, 2-2 Big 12).
Texas A&M trailed by one before Sloan's driving jumper in the lane made it 63-62. The Sooners (11-7, 2-2) had a chance to take the lead, but Willie Warren's off-balance attempt fell short, and Bryan Davis grabbed the rebound.
He was immediately fouled but missed the free throws, giving Oklahoma another chance. Tommy Mason-Griffin missed a shot, and Sloan was fouled on the rebound. He made two free throws with 3 seconds remaining.
The Sooners got the ball one last time, but Sloan intercepted a pass from Tiny Gallon as time expired.
Mason-Griffin led Oklahoma with 21 points.
Postgame Quotes
A&M GUARD Donald Sloan
On the team's defense at the end of the game… “It was great team defense. Everyone helped everyone. We had guys playing every shot. We had five guys trying to go rebound. All three of those things, kind of collectively together, helped us in that three-minute stretch.”
On the 2nd half stretch where no shots fell: “It was kind of draining a little bit. You were doing everything you can on defense and it seemed like the basket was as big as an ocean to them. We weren't able to make shots. It was frustrating but I don't think we let it get to us too much.”
On making his last two free throws… “I made them. Being a leader, or one of the leaders on the team, I felt like I kind of owed it to everybody to make them, especially at a time like that. I felt like I had to do it. I was glad I made both of them.”
A&M GUARD DASH HARRIS
On his five-point spurt to give the Aggies the lead… “They were sagging off me pretty much the whole game. My shots weren't falling. I don't know if you guys notice, but I go to the end of bench and talk to D-Ro (Derrick Roland) a lot. He told me to keep shooting them. I was just down in my stance and ready to let them go both times. And they fell when I needed them to.”
On the importance of the win… “We said we wanted to get on a roll, and we said it would start here at home. We couldn't have done it without the students. The fans were awesome. This win was important. We needed this after losing two straight on the road.”
A&M GUARD BJ HOLMES
On Coach Turgeon saying he would keep running plays for him even if his shots weren't falling… “He always tells me he has confidence in me. All the guys have confidence in me. I know I can make shots, so it wasn't a big concern of mine. Tonight they started falling.”
OKLAHOMA GUARD TOMMY MASON-GRIFFIN
On the missed shots at the end… “The first shot was a bad shot. Instead of shooting a perimeter shot I should have gotten to the basket and gotten free throws or an easy layup. That was something to learn from.”
On tonight being a step forward for him… “Tiny (Gallon) and Willie (Warren) were in foul trouble. I felt I had to be more aggressive on offense.”
OKLAHOMA GUARD CADE DAVIS
On this loss compared to the one at Baylor… “I think we showed maturity here in this road game better than we did at Baylor. Being down 10 at the half, coming out, being aggressive and going on the run we did showed some character. Hopefully we can take that and do it in the first half. We really dug a hole in the first half.”
On A&M's defense shutting them down in the last few minutes… “I wouldn't say they shut us down. I think we just missed some shots. If we make those it's a whole different ballgame. But they did pick up their pressure. Credit to them, they played a great game at the end.”
On not letting the game get away in the first half… “Towards the end we got stops here and there. We weren't consistent. We had some guys knock down some shots. Tommy played a great first half. We kind of hung in there. There wasn't a whole lot we did, we were just inconsistent in the first half. We made some shots when we needed to to kind of keep it where it was.”
OKLAHOMA HEAD COACH JEFF CAPEL
“First of all, congrats to Texas A&M. They made the plays down the stretch. They got off to a great start and shot the ball a lot better in the first half than they had during conference play so far, and we dug ourselves a hole. But I was proud of my guys. We have grown up a lot since we last went on the road. We came out in the second half ready to fight. With 13 seconds left, (Bryan) Davis misses two free throws, and we had a great look by a kid who in my opinion was the best player on the floor tonight in Tommy Mason-Griffin, and he just missed it. It's a shot I think that if he got it again, he'd knock it down. Then (Donald) Sloan came down and made two free throws. But again, I was proud of our guys. It hurts that we lost. It's disappointing. We had a lead and let it slip away. But I think we have grown up since the last time we went on the road.”
On what A&M did in the first half to limit Willie Warren… “Well, foul trouble did that. He picked up two fouls in the first five or six minutes. And when he came back in I thought he was a little passive. But I just thought their pressure knocked us back. We couldn't get into anything. We were standing around and were a little stagnant on offense. We stood and watched, and tried to do too much one-on-one. In the second half I thought we had better movement.”
On the game's last play… “The last play was that if we could hit Tommy (Mason-Griffin) in stride we would hit him. They did a good job defending that. The next option was to hit Tiny (Gallon). Tiny probably rushed it a little bit. As soon as he caught it he turned and didn't see the defense. 3.5 seconds is a lot of time. I think the guy who probably would have been open was Cade (Davis). But they defended it well.”
On the close games between the teams and the mutual respect… “The players are the main thing. There have been some heck of players on both teams. Mark (Turgeon) inherited a really good program on solid ground, and Mark's a really, really good coach. He's come in and put his stamp on the program and recruited well. All of these games have been heck of games since we've played them. There's a lot of respect between the coaching staffs, and the guys on the teams know each other.”
A&M COACH Mark Turgeon
“That was a great college basketball game. First of all I was really impressed with the fans. Our student turnout was the third largest in history and I don't think we could have won the game without them. They gave us a lot of energy. It could have been the difference. We were great the first half. I told our guys we had to punch them in the mouth to start the second half, and we just didn't do it. We were bad on offense and even worse on defense. We put our heads down quick. We let our bad offense affect our defense and for a seven- to eight-minute stretch they took advantage of it. Our inefficiency on offense hurts us. We can't ever get away from anybody. But when the game was on the line we made plays. I told the guys after the game I think the Big 12 is the best league in the country. There won't be any easy games, home or away. That was proven again tonight.”
On how the team managed to get the momentum back at the end… “We hit a couple of shots in a row, got the crowd in the game, and defended better. We're still not rebounding the way we need to rebound. We got a little momentum, got our confidence back and our team defense was better. We made certain guys try to beat us and they weren't able to do that tonight.”
On having confidence in B.J. Holmes… “He's been great in practice. I thought he really guarded well and he made some shots against the zone early. A couple of other shots went all the way in and out for him. I thought B.J. was better defensively. His team defense was really good tonight. He competed. Our guys knew how important this game was. They knew in the end we had to have it, and they did what they had to do to get it done.”
On his message to the team in timeouts when Oklahoma was on its run… “Play with confidence on offense and just play great team defense. Don't let our offense affect our defense. We didn't run back a couple of times and gave up a few buckets easy in transition. We can't do that. We weren't getting offensive boards. If you can't make your shots, you better get a second shot. We just tried to stay positive. I think Oklahoma is the type of team where they kind of feed off things when they go well, and they did. They were a heck of a team in the second half.”
A&M Notes
*Tonight's attendance of 11,109 was the largest of the season at Reed Arena. The student attendance of 5,544 was the third largest in school history.
*A&M has won three of the last four against Oklahoma at Reed Arena. Nine of the last 10 games in the series have been decided by single digits.
*A&M has won 13 straight home games, including five straight in Big 12 play.
*A&M has won 17 straight games when its opponent scores fewer than 70 points, including all 13 wins this season.
*B.J. Holmes broke and 0-13 slump on three-pointers tonight by making 3-of-8 and finishing with 13 points. His three assists tied his season high.
*Khris MIddleton had 11 points, his fourth double figure scoring game of the year. He added 7 rebounds, his fourth game with 7 or more.
*Dash Harris scored 5 points with 7 assists and 0 turnovers in 31 minutes. His assists total was one shy of his career high of 8 earlier this season against Akron.
*Derrek Lewis scored 5 points with a career-high 4 rebounds. It was the second-best point total of his career (8 vs. Northwestern State earlier this month). Lewis is from Tulsa.
*A&M had 11 fast break points. The Aggies are 26-1 under Mark Turgeon when they have at least 8 fast break points.
*A&M shot 50 percent from the field. The Aggies are 27-0 under Turgeon when they make at least 50 percent, including a 6-0 mark this season.
