Texas A&M
15-1,2-0
OKLAHOMA STATE
13-3,1-1
No. 13 Aggies Upend Oklahoma State, 71-48
Jan 12, 2011 | Men's Basketball
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) - Nathan Walkup and David Loubeau each scored 16 points and No. 13 Texas A&M extended its winning streak to 12 games with a 71-48 victory over Oklahoma State on Wednesday night.
The streak is the third-longest in Texas A&M history and leaves the Aggies without a loss since a 67-65 defeat by Boston College on Thanksgiving.
The Aggies (15-1, 2-0 Big 12) led by six at halftime and didn't trail in the second half. The Cowboys cut the deficit to three points with about 15 minutes remaining, but the Aggies responded with an 8-1 run that included five points by Andrew Darko to push the lead to 51-41.
Oklahoma State (13-3, 1-1) got 11 points from Ray Penn. Marshall Moses had 10 points and 12 rebounds.
Walkup opened the second half with a 3-pointer and finished with four from long range to tie a career high.
Texas A&M led by 14 with about 5 minutes left before Dash Harris grabbed a rebound on a missed 3-pointer by the Cowboys and took it back for a monster dunk that brought the crowd to its feet. Harris clung to the rim to allow players to vacate the area, but nearly straddled Loubeau when he finally came down, with one of his legs landing over Loubeau's shoulder.
That dunk was part of an 11-0 run that included a 3-pointer by Harris that stretched A&M's lead to 71-48. Oklahoma State's last points came on a jump shot by Moses with almost 6 minutes remaining and the Cowboys missed nine field goal attempts after that to finish with their fewest points this season.
Their previous low came in a 56-51 loss to Virginia Tech.
Jean-Paul Olukemi, the Big 12 rookie of the week last week, had a tough night. He scored just one point and fouled out with 6 minutes remaining.
Texas A&M's leading scorer, Khris Middleton, had seven of the team's first 14 points but cooled off after that and finished with nine. Harris added nine points and seven rebounds.
The Aggies led by nine after a 3-pointer by Walkup with about 17 1/2 minutes remaining. The Cowboys used a 6-0 run fueled by three points from Moses to get within 43-40 a couple of minutes later.
The Cowboys led by one after a dunk by Darrell Williams about 8 minutes before halftime. The Aggies used an 11-5 spurt in the next 4 minutes to take a 30-25 lead.
Oklahoma State scored four straight points after that to close the gap to one before a 3-pointer by B.J. Holmes and a basket by Loubeau pushed A&M's lead to 35-29 at halftime.
Oklahoma State scored the first six points of the game before Texas A&M answered with a 9-0 run to take a 9-6 lead with about 16 minutes left in the first half.
TEXAS A&M POSTGAME NOTES
TEAM
- Texas A&M led the game, 43-40, with 15:08 to play ... the Aggies outscored OSU, 28-6, the rest of the way ... 6 of those final 8 Cowboy points came from the line, and the only field goal over the last 15 minutes was OSU's final points of the contest, with 5:41 remaining.
- Texas A&M is 2-0 in Big 12 play for just the second time in school history (2006-07).
- A&M extended its win streak to 12 games, the longest in 90 years and the third longest in school history (25, 1919-21 seasons and 20, 1914-16 seasons) ... it is also the longest win streak in Mark Turgeon coaching career.
- With a 15-1 record, only one team in school history has had a better start than this year's Aggies (1919-20 team went 19-0) ... Turgeon's 2007-08 team is the only other one to open the year 15-1.
- Texas A&M has won 7 of the last 11 meetings with Oklahoma State.
- The 23-point Aggie win was the largest ever against OSU (previous high 20, 66-46 in 2007).
- The Aggies have won 28 of their last 29 home games, including 11 of their last 12 in Big 12 play ... A&M has won 25 straight home games against unranked opponents.
- Wednesday's crowd of 12,310 was the third-largest to watch a conference home opener in Texas A&M history (12,811 vs Texas, 1/12/05; 12,634 vs Colorado, 1/12/08).
- The Aggies' 27 points off turnovers was the third highest of the season and most since racking up 31 points off turnovers in the second game of the year, at A&M-Corpus Christi (11/15).
- A&M out-rebounded OSU, 34-28, and has out-rebounded every opponent this season.
- The Aggies held OSU to a season-low 48 points.
INDIVIDUAL
- Nathan Walkup matched his career high with 4 three-pointers on the night.
- Dash Harris was one rebound shy of his career high (7 tonight).
POSTGAME QUOTES
OKLAHOMA STATE HEAD COACH TRAVIS FORD
"(There's) not a whole lot to be said, they pretty much outplayed us in every category. We didn't do much."
On whether his young players got nervous on the road..."You look at the way they played, I don't know if it was because it was on the road, but they certainly didn't play well. Guys can start feeling good about themselves, but this is a long and hard road, and there will be bumps along the way. Hopefully, we can learn some lessons from this. I like our players, but they're players outplayed us tonight."
On A&M limiting Marshall Moses..."They did a great job on Marshall. It one of those nights where he had some decent looks, but the ball wasn't going in for him."
On cutting the lead to three points with 18 minutes remaining..."It was amazing, because I was shocked that were only down 6 at halftime. But they had an answer, kind of like we did against Kansas State. They had (Andrew) Darko come in, make a three, tip the ball in. When you whip someone like that, those things happen. Give them credit, they played well tonight."
On guarding Nate Walkup on the outside..."Maybe after him making one or two, you think you'd know. We dealt the last two years with Obi Muonelo, and I like that. It's different than what you play against normally. A lot of people are going to have problems with that. But give them credit, we had some shots that could've gone in, but they made their shots."
OKLAHOMA STATE SENIOR F MARSHALL MOSES
On A&M's limiting OSU's offense..."We didn't execute. They executed, we didn't. They took away one option, then the second option, and we didn't know what to do after that. Guys were taking shots when they shouldn't have been."
On limiting him down low..."They did a good job, they started off looking like they weren't double-teaming, but they were. I played badly, and when I wasn't turning it over, my teammates were missing shots. This is what happens, every little thing builds up to a big thing, and that's how we lost."
OSU SOPHOMORE G RAY PENN
On preparing for Colorado..."Colorado just beat Missouri at home, it happens, you win games, you lose them, you have to put this behind us, we just have to get prepared for Colorado. A&M is done with, we'll see them again, we just have to get prepared for Colorado."
On the slow start..."The type of team we were when the game started, it just seemed like we were a step slow. Most of the time when that happens you finish slow too. It's not that we weren't prepared, it just seemed like we just didn't show up today. I was bad. Dash Harris did a hell of a job leading his team and helping his offense."
A&M HEAD COACH Mark Turgeon
"I didn't expect this. I thought Oklahoma State was potentially, and I still feel this way, the best team we've played all year. They have inside presence, shooters, they guard you. I just didn't expect this."
On Nathan Walkup as a mismatch..."They had a big guy on him, and it was hard for them to chase. They made adjustments, took some things away on screens in the second half, but Nate took advantage of it when he could. It's good to see Nate knocking down some shots."
On limiting OSU to such low scoring..."I think they missed their last nine shots. It looks really good, 48 looks good, but they're better than that. We defend, we put a lot into it, we talk about it a lot. We weren't great rebounding, but our defense looked good tonight."
On defending Moses..."I thought we did a great job on Moses. He had 12 (rebounds) and 10 (points), but I thought he earned every one of those points. I thought our post defense was good tonight."
On the bench's play..."I thought Darko's three was huge. Things weren't falling for us, and he came in and made that shot. It got the crowd going, and really there was no looking back after that."
On what this game gives going into Missouri...."It gives us confidence. I've been on these guys pretty hard, and I'll continue to do that, but it gives us confidence. It was great to see a lot of fans here, and we'll need it on Saturday. This was a smash mouth, who's tougher kind of game. What you see on Saturday will be more of the finesse game. Our guard play is going to have to be better."
On whether he expected the team to play so well..."No, especially because of the way we played over Christmas. I just got caught up in how we play, and I thought tonight, second half, we really defended and did a good job."
On Middleton being limited..."Khris was cramping up early, so we played most of the second half without him. They did a good job on him, they're physical. We'll get fluids in him and he'll be good to go."
A&M JUNIOR G Dash Harris
On his dunk..."I did the same thing last year. It was a great feeling, got the crowd going, it capitalized the night for us."
On holding a good team to such low scoring..."That's what we look to do; to hold our opponents to less than what they average, and we take pride in that. To hold such great players, at the guard position, we know we did well."
On making his three pointer in dramatic fashion..."I was hoping one of them fell, I took a couple of them, they all felt good. I was going to shoot them until I made it. I had confidence in them, so I'll take them how they go it."
On whether this win gives confidence against Missouri..."We've always had our confidence, but we don't want to get too high. We'll watch film and see what we did well, what we didn't do well. We're looking forward to a great Missouri team on Saturday."
On whether this was the best game of the season..."I think we put two halves together. We usually play really well at one half, but I think we played two halves together offensively and defensively. I'd say yes, it was a great win for us."
A&M JUNIOR F David Loubeau
On picking up the defense when Oklahoma State brought it close..."It was a fast paced game, they were shooting a lot of threes so we got a lot of rebounds. We just focused defensively and everything came from there."
On Dash Harris' dunk..."I saw him going to the hole and he dunked it. I was going to the rebound, but I'm glad he dunked it. When I was running back, all I could see was his leg on my shoulder."
On limiting Marshall Moses' game..."A couple of days before the game, we watched a lot of film on him and basically broke down his moves. We executed that plan and made him make tough shots."
A&M SENIOR F Nathan Walkup
On the team's defensive effort..."We worked real hard on defense in practice, Oklahoma State has great shooters. We knew they were going to be physical. We had to come out and match their physicality. We knew we had to beat them on boards and play tough defense, and I think we did that tonight."
On being guarded at the three-point line..."I hope they keep leaving me open. We had a game plan, they were going to double David and I just kept shooting them."
Is this the team's best game of the season?"I'd say it's one of them. They were more physical than we were for a while in the first half. We turned the ball over too many times. 11 is not bad compared to their 18, but it's too many. We'll work on that and continue to get better."
On what this game gives the team going into a game against Missouri..."I think it's a big confidence booster. Oklahoma State is a really good team, they have really good players, I think they'll be a tournament team. Hopefully we'll have a big crowd Saturday."
On Andrew Darko's play..."That's what Darko does. In practice he does everything right, it's good to see someone who works so hard, in his senior year, to start doing good things for us. That's the big thing we'll need from guys like him going into conference play."
Was the crowd a defining factor in the game..."Especially when we picked up the defense. We used the crowd as energy, fed off of the whole building and used that energy to carry us through the second half."
