Texas A&M
2-1
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Mississippi State
3-1
Aggies Fall to Mississippi State, 69-60
Nov 17, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Naji Hibbert's drive with 3:37 to play brought Texas A&M (2-1) within 60-52.
MISSISSIPPI STATE 69, (#18/19) TEXAS A&M 60
Thursday, November 17, 2011 - Madison Square Garden - New York, New York
2K Sports Classic benefiting Coaches vs Cancer - Semifinals
Team
- Texas A&M's 7 steals were a season high.
- Texas A&M fell to 2-2 all-time in Madison Square Garden.
- The Bulldogs now lead the all-time series, 2-1 ... Thursday's meeting was the first between the future SEC divisional foes since 1966.
Individual
- Jamal Branch scored a season (and career) high 10 points.
- Kourtney Roberson hit double-figures in rebounds (10) for the second time in his career and first time this season.
- David Loubeau (11 points) hit double figures in scoring for the ninth straight game and 13 of the last 15 dating back to last season.
- Loubeau's 3-pointer early in the first half was the first of his career and the first attempt from behind the arc of his career.
TEXAS A&M POSTGAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH BILLY KENNEDY
How much did DeVille Smith change things when they played him and Dee Bost together? "It made a big difference, two small guards who are able to get in the paint and really get to the rim. They didn't just get to the paint, they got to the rim. That's something that's a weakness of our team, guarding the dribble, and it was a tough matchup for us. It's something we're going to have to get better at, defending the paint, and make teams beat us from the outside."
Do you think that MSU has enough around Renardo Sidney where he doesn't need to do as much out there? "They're very talented. They have a lot of different weapons. But Renardo, when he's right, he gives them a different dimension, two 6-10 post players who can score and do things athletically. He made a play in front of our bench where they called offensive goaltending, and that's a play that's made in The Garden all the time. Coach Stansbury knows what he's doing, he's doing a good job with his team and they'll continue to get better as (Sidney) gets better."
Do you feel like you guys rushed things offensively early on? "Well, we're still trying to figure out how to play. I give our players a lot of credit for hanging in there the last month and sticking together in an awkward situation. Our coaches have done a tremendous job too. Then you lose Khris Middleton a week ago. We don't have a lot of margin for error. And this team last year didn't have a lot of margin for error. We've got to have everything go well for us, we have to be more efficient. We didn't get to the free throw line but 14 times and they got there 31 times. That's too big a discrepancy. Again, you have to give Mississippi State a lot of credit. The first five minutes they came out and were very tough to defend and got it going early. I think we panicked some. We have to take the bad plays out. We've got some upperclassmen that have to play better than they played."
How did you feel out there and how excited were you to be back with your team? "I'm thankful to be here. It's a blessing from God for me to be here because I didn't know that I'd be here a week ago. I feel bad for our team because I haven't been able to help them as much as I would have liked, but I'm hoping to continue to get better every day and hopefully as a group we can get better and see some wins instead of today."
Is there kind of a silver lining in being able to tell the team that they can play again tomorrow and can bounce back from this? "Like I told our guys, we made some plays that were bad basketball plays that you can't make and beat anybody. We'll go back and watch those and put this behind us. We'll have a tough matchup tomorrow. Both Arizona and St. John's are good teams. We'll have our hands full. But we do get to play tomorrow. It's a long season. Our best basketball is ahead of us."
G ELSTON TURNER
Talk about how Mississippi State's quick start took you guys out of your game... "It was tough because we knew what they wanted to do. Coach had emphasized that one thing they do is shoot a lot of threes. We just gave up too many open looks in the beginning and dug ourselves into a hole, and we didn't really come back from it."
Without Khris do you feel like it's unfair to judge y'all as a team until he gets back? "Yes and no. Khris is an all-conference player, and we need him. But defensively, that's no excuse for how we played. Khris is such a great player, but defense is team-oriented. We miss Khris and can't wait to get him back, and when he comes back you'll see a different team. But the way we played tonight was not how we normally play (no matter who is on the floor)."
F DAVID LOUBEAU
Did you feel good when you cut it to nine at the half? "We felt like we were making a run, but we fell short. We weren't doing the little things, and they really took advantage of second-chance points."
