Texas A&M
17-2,4-1
KANSAS STATE
13-7,1-4
No. 10 Aggies Outlast Kansas State, 64-56
Jan 22, 2011 | Men's Basketball
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) - Minutes after Texas A&M was manhandled in an 81-60 loss to Texas earlier in the week, coach Mark Turgeon told the 11th-ranked Aggies they'd have to be much more physical to beat Kansas State.
Texas A&M answered his challenge, outmuscling Kansas State in a game with 48 fouls to win 64-56 on Saturday.
Khris Middleton had 18 points and Texas A&M made 13 free throws in the last 2 minutes to hold on against the struggling Wildcats.
"Before we left the locker room (Wednesday) I told them: 'We better be a heck of a lot tougher if we expect to win,"' Turgeon said. "We just talked about getting back to being us, which is defending. We haven't defended well, to be quite honest."
Texas A&M (17-2, 4-1 Big 12) led by five before Will Spradling knocked down a 3-pointer that made it 55-53 with about a minute remaining. B.J. Holmes made a pair of free throws with 45 seconds left before Jacob Pullen's shot was blocked by David Loubeau on the other end and the Wildcats had to foul again.
Dash Harris made one of two shots to push the lead to 58-53, and the Aggies got the rebound on the miss.
Middleton hit six free throws after that to secure the win.
It was the fourth loss in five games for Kansas State (13-7, 1-4), which was led by Pullen's 21 points. Curtis Kelly added 15 points and 11 rebounds for the Wildcats, off to a terrible start in Big 12 play after being the preseason conference favorite.
"We're getting better," Kansas State coach Frank Martin said. "I understand our record doesn't show it, but we're better prepared to win than we were on Jan. 1. We've had some hard games in hard places, but that's the story of the Big 12. No one will feel sorry for us."
Kelly had his best game since returning from his six-game suspension on Jan. 15, but Martin thought he could have done more.
"His stat line looks good, but I didn't think he played well," Martin said.
Asked how he could have done better, Martin replied: "Maybe finish the game and not stop playing with 2 minutes to go."
The Aggies bounced back from the loss to No. 10 Texas, which was their first defeat since Thanksgiving.
"Kansas State was one of the most physical teams we've played," Holmes said. "They get up on you on defense and full-court pressure you. We try to set the tone out there and just play hard. You have to want to play defense and I think everyone on the team has bought into playing defense."
Texas A&M's free throw shooting was the key in this one with the Aggies making 27 of 37 attempts compared to 11-of-19 shooting from the line for the Wildcats. Middleton led the way in that area, sinking 11 of 12.
"It's hard to win on the road when you go 5 of 20 on the 3-point line and they shoot 37 free throws and you shoot 19," Martin said.
Turgeon thought his team could have had more trips to the line, but acknowledged that the physical nature of the game made calling everything difficult.
"It was a tough game to officiate," he said. "It was a wrestling match out there."
Middleton was the only Aggies player who scored in double figures, but Holmes, Naji Hibbert and Kourtney Roberson chipped in nine points apiece for Texas A&M.
Martin was encouraged that his team was only down by a possession with about a minute left after losing their last few road games by big margins.
"Last three road games we've had we had no chance," he said. "We've melted when adversity hit. We gave ourselves a chance today, but still had the breakdowns that kept us from winning."
The game was tied at 48 before the Aggies used a 7-2 run to make it 55-50 with just under 1 1/2 minutes left.
Pullen got Kansas State within 46-45 with a jump shot with about 10 minutes remaining. Both teams went on scoring droughts after that, with neither one making a field goal for about 5 minutes. The Wildcats tied it on a free throw by Kelly with about 7 minutes left.
Harris hit a layup with just more than 5 minutes remaining to break the drought and give the Aggies a 48-46 lead.
Kansas State led by six before Texas A&M used a 13-0 run to pull ahead 44-37 with 12 minutes to go. That run was fueled by a pair of 3-pointers by Hibbert that came 5 seconds apart. Hibbert hit one from the left corner before a turnover by the Wildcats gave the Aggies the ball back. He caught the inbounds pass and knocked down a second one from the right corner.
The Aggies were up by six after a 3-pointer by Hibbert with about 4 minutes left in the first half. The Wildcats finished the half with a 7-1 run to leave it tied 29-all at the break.
TEXAS A&M POSTGAME NOTES
TEAM
- The win moved Texas A&M's record in Big 12 play to 4-1, matching the 2006-07 squad for best Big 12 start in school history ... the Aggies have won 45 Big 12 games since the start of the 2007 league season, while prior to that A&M had totaled only 43 wins in the first 10 years of Big 12 play.
- The Aggies improved to 17-2 on the year, the best start in 91 seasons and second-best in school history ... the 1919-20 team went a perfect 19-0.
- Under Mark Turgeon, A&M has won 12 of its last 13 games following a loss.
- The Aggies have won 14 straight home games, including a perfect 12-0 record this year ... A&M has won 30 of its last 31 home games, including 13 of the last 14 in Big 12 play ... A&M is 43-3 overall and 16-3 in Big 12 play at Reed since the start of the 2008-09 season.
- Texas A&M improved to 4-1 against ranked teams this year.
- A&M is 16-1 this year and 78-12 overall under Mark Turgeon when holding an opponent under 70 points.
- The Aggies out-rebounded K-State, 39-30 ... A&M has out-boarded 18 of 19 opponents this year ... the two teams came in to the game ranked No. 1 (A&M, +10.6) and No. 2 (KSU, +9.7) in the Big 12 in rebounding margin.
- The Aggies snapped a two-game losing skid to Kansas State ... A&M trails the series, 16-7, and has won 5 of 7 meetings all-time at Reed Arena.
- Mark Turgeon won his 90thgame as head coach at Texas A&M, tying him with D.X. Bible for third on the school's all-time coaching charts ... Turgeon (90-33) trails only Bob Rogers (92 in six seasons) and the legendary Shelby Metcalf (438 in 26 ½ seasons) ... Bible accumulated his 90 victories over seven years.
- The Aggies were tied at halftime (29-29) for the first time this season.
- Saturday's attendance of 12,715 was a season high and included 3,453 students.
INDIVIDUAL
- Khris Middleton led the team with 18 points, the 11thtime this year he's paced the Aggies in scoring ... Middleton hit double-figures for the 16thtime in A&M's 19 games ... he also led the team in rebounds on Saturday (7) for the eighth time this season.
- David Loubeau matched a career high with 2 blocks Saturday.
POSTGAME QUOTES
TEXAS A&M HEAD COACH Mark Turgeon
That's a really good win for us. I thought Kansas State played well. Defensively, I thought they were really dialed in, they did a great job guarding us. We didn't particularly play well, to be honest, especially offensively. It's an ugly win, but in the end it's a "W."
On Dash Harris' play...I thought Dash Harris was tremendous. Jacob had 21 points on 19 shots. Dash did a great job on him.
On the bench's play...I'm proud of the bench, I thought they were really good today and had a big impact on the game.
On Ray's injury...He's fine. It's the ankle and his knee on his right leg. Ice packs and everything, but hopefully he'll be able to practice on Monday.
On the play of his seniors...Nate's rebound was big, it's those little things. B.J. had to help us, he hadn't been shooting the ball well, and hadn't been scoring for us the way I thought he would be this year. He made some big free throws. I had the right guy shooting it at the end.
On David Loubeau making his only jumper of the game...It's funny because we had a timeout and I said `Dave, we're going to keep going to you.' It was big, it gave us a three-point lead, but it felt like a 10-point lead at the time.
On David Loubeau's play...He wasn't as explosive as he needs to be. He had a couple of plays at the rim but he didn't finish. But that being said, Keith and Kourtney and Ray came in and really played well. I think we built some depth against a very talented basketball team today.
On Naji Hibbert's three-pointers...All three of them were big, the one against the zone in the first half was big, got them out of that defense. We were really struggling. It's great to see, Naji is slowly getting better and his defense is getting better. I think his minutes will increase as the year goes on.
On the team's play overall...I don't think we're very good, I really don't. I'm sitting over there thinking we have a long ways to go. And I think that's the exciting thing about where we are, we're not playing very well. We're making a lot of mistakes, we have a lot of silly fouls. The way we're playing right now is not good enough. That just shows you how good I think that group in there can be.
On bouncing back after the loss to Texas...We talked about just getting back to playing Texas A&M basketball, and our guys know what that is. If our bigs, Kourtney and Ray, come along, then our team will really improve.
On the rebound margin...It was key for us. We really rebounded well. We had a stretch in the second half where we didn't rebound, and that's how they got the lead, but then we rebounded for the rest of the game. We have some work to do, but the plus-nine margin is really good for us.
On having a couple days off..We seem a little tired in the locker room, maybe because of the physicality of the last two games. I think it's coming at a good time for us.
SOPHOMORE FORWARD Khris Middleton
On David Loubeau's jumper...It was a great shot by David, and I'm confident he can knock down that shot. He's a good shooter, he just had a bad shooting day today, and he'll shake it off.
On the bench's play...Those are good players on our bench, they come into the game, bring the energy, makes plays for us.
SENIOR GUARD B.J. Holmes
On making free throws...It's something we work on every day in practice. We shoot free throws before practice, after practice, and I guess it translated to tonight.
On Naji Hibbert's play...Naji has been practicing really hard, his confidence is getting down a little bit, but in practices, he's been knocking down shots, and today he hit two big threes in a row.
On bouncing back after losing to Texas...It's a long season, we took that loss at Texas, and we didn't play well. We wanted to come back and focus on us a little bit more, just try to work hard.
On Kansas State's physical play...I'd say Kansas State is one of the most physical teams we've played. They get up on you on defense, full court pressure you, they did a great job taking charges tonight.
On Nathan Walkup's play...He doesn't stop, his motor is always going 110 percent. We practice offensive rebounds in practice, where Nathan gets around his guy. If you watch film, he does it almost every time. Nate makes big plays, and he was able to make those tonight.
On getting a small break in the schedule...I think we need it, it came at the right time. We going to go four days this week, then get a couple of days off and then try to get ready for Nebraska.
KANSAS STATE HEAD COACH FRANK MARTIN
On what the difference was in the close game...There were two things that hurt us in the outcome of the game, after the last media timeout, we turned it over three times. And then four offensive rebounds on missed free throws and a lane violation. It's hard to win on the road when you go 5-20 on the three-point line and they shoot 37 free throws and you shoot 19.
On Curtis Kelly's play...His stat line looks good, but I don't think he played well.
On what Kelly should do better...Maybe he should finish the game, not stop playing with 2 minutes late.
On the team's improvement...We're getting better, I understand our record doesn't show it, but we were more prepared to win today than January first. We've had some hard games, some big places, but that's the story of the Big 12.
On the close game...Two years ago, we were in the same exact game here, we jump up and make a couple of three-pointers and win. Tonight, we just didn't make them.
On Naji Hibbert's three pointers...That's Big 12 basketball, a kid on their team jumped up, made a three, I think Jacob deflects the ball, tries to make an unbelievable effort play. Their kid comes up with the ball, Hibbert sticks another three.
On what makes A&M good...They remind me a lot of our team last year, that's what we did last year, shoot free throws and get offensive rebounds every game. Offensively, we had a cohesive unit. We had grown men playing, with Clemente, and they didn't make that youthly mistake. Right now we're going through the growth process. Turgeon has done an unbelievable job here. He has these guys playing good basketball.
