Texas A&M
15-6, 4-3
TEXAS TECH
14-7, 2-5
Aggies Pull Away From Red Raiders, 85-70
Jan 30, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 30, 2010
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) - Donald Sloan scored 28 points and Texas A&M beat Texas Tech 85-70 on Saturday night.
The win is A&M's 15th straight at home and leaves the Red Raiders (14-7, 2-5 Big 12) winless on the road in conference play.
Texas A&M (15-6, 4-3) trailed for most of the first half but led the entire second half.
The Aggies led by 11 before a wild sequence with about 1 1/2 minutes remaining that included four quick points off two steals, the second of which left Tech's leading scorer Mike Singletary on the court injured.
Singletary was hurt while fighting for a ball with Bryan Davis. Play continued with Sloan finishing the fast break with a layup while Tech coach Pat Knight yelled at the officials to stop play so he could attend to his player.
Singletary was escorted to the locker room holding his right shoulder and grimacing after being looked at for a couple of minutes.
Postgame Notes
*Tonight's attendance of 13,648 was a Reed Arena record. The old mark was 13,584 vs. Oklahoma State in 2008.
*A&M had just 4 turnovers, a school record for Big 12 play. It matched the overall unofficial school record set last season against Arizona.
*David Loubeau scored 19 points and tied his career-best with 9 rebounds. His point total was his career high for conference play and was one shy of his overall best (20) set against Angelo State in the season opener.
*Donald Sloan's 28 points were a career-best for Big 12 play and were the second most overall in his career. Sloan scored 29 last month vs. New Mexico. Sloan scored 27 points at Oklahoma State on Wednesday and averaged 27.5 for the week. His 14 free throw attempts tied his career high (Nebraska earlier this month).
*Bryan Davis scored 15 points with 7 rebounds and 4 blocks. Davis has blocked at least one shot in 16 straight games.
*Dash Harris had 7 points with 3 steals and 3 assists (0 turnovers). A&M is 20-2 when Harris has at least 3 assists in his career, including a 17-0 mark at Reed Arena.
*A&M scored a season-high 19 second-chance points (19 offensive rebounds).
*A&M's 17 points off turnovers were a season high for Big 12 play.
*A&M's 28 bench points also were a season high for Big 12 play.
*A&M's 44 points in the paint were its third most of the season (46 vs. Colorado and 48 vs. Angelo State)
*Junior B.J. Holmes got his first start of the season and the third of his career.
Postgame Quotes
TEXAS TECH ASSOCIATE HEAD COACH CHRIS BEARD
"(Head Coach) Pat (Knight) is still talking to team, and we didn't want to keep y'all waiting. Anytime you shoot the ball over 50 percent, you have a chance to win the game. It's disappointing in that aspect. Definitely the three players that really concerned us coming in were Loubeau and Davis, and Sloan is one of the best players in the league. We attempted to stop one or the other, but obviously they got off on both ends. Their perimeter game was great and their outside game was great. That's why we sit here with the outcome we had. We gave up way too many offensive rebounds to A&M. Give them all the credit. And, we turned the ball over way too much. It's hard to play good defense when you turn the ball over and take bad shots."
On the injury to Mike Singletary... "No, at this point we don't know anything. Our trainer, Jon Murray, is looking at him in there right now."
On Darko Cohadarevic fouling out... "The foul trouble in general hurt us. Obviously when you play A&M, the more you can guard the posts one-on-one, the better. The only two kids we have on the team that can do that are Darko and (Robert) Lewandowski. Both were in foul trouble and both didn't play their best tonight, and you have to give A&M the credit."
On only forcing four turnovers... "Give A&M the credit. They have great spacing and really good team chemistry. Guys know their roles. They spread the floor and pass the ball. It's hard to get steals on them."
A&M FORWARD Donald Sloan
On Bryan Davis) getting going early, and Coach Turgeon said to keep feeding them. They handled it well for us in the first half, and I think that got the other guys going. We were basically working off our bigs."
On whether the team thinks about the 3-point struggles... "Not really. They are good shots, and we are good shooters. I don't know why they're not falling. They're going in in practice. We still feel confident. Our guys, we'll start making them. I said earlier in the week, if we start making our threes we'll be a heck of a team. We'll just keep working. If they do start going, good. I don't think we live and die by the three. We've got a good inside game. Once they do start falling, and I think they will, we'll be pretty dangerous."
A&M COACH Mark Turgeon
"That's a great win. I thought Texas Tech was phenomenal offensively, especially the first 10 minutes of the game. It took us a while to get used to all their screens, we worked on them but we still got stuck on some. They played well. (David) Loubeau was great tonight. (Donald) Sloan was fantastic. We figured out how to get to the line. For the most part I thought we did a great job on (Mike) Singletary and (John) Roberson, their two best players. We held Tech to 70, which is pretty good, especially the way they started. We really picked up our defense. The thing I was most excited about is our crowd. We set a record tonight and had almost 5,000 students. It shows people around here are believing in what we're doing and how hard we are playing. We continued winning at home, which is important in this league, but we have got to figure out how to win on the road."
On the low turnover numbers... "That's good guard play. We're really good passers. Our passing doesn't look as good because we don't make jump shots. If you make jump shots, everything looks pretty. We can really dribble and pass. It also helps having three point guards out there (Sloan, Harris and Holmes) handling the ball. Plus the big guys did a great job taking care of the ball tonight, and that was the difference. It's funny, we were 2-for-16 and we missed 11 FTs again, but we're so darn used to it. We just fight through it. Then we got our defense going. This is a really good win for us."
On the play of Loubeau... "I thought he handled the double team better tonight. He can flat out score, he just needs minutes. And we've decided we will play the big lineup more. The small lineup is out there for shooters, and we are not making shots. So let's cram that sucker inside. That shows you we're growing up as a basketball team."
On the 3-point struggles... "We really don't talk about it. We do a lot more shooting in practice. We do more contests, trying to have fun with it. The thing about our team is, if you re-watch our games and our team, we execute. And that's what I want. I think the way we've shot the ball so far, to be 4-3 says a lot about the group I have. We're tough and we fight through things. We know we have to get better though to win in this league."
