Texas A&M
5-1
Alcorn State
1-6
Turner Leads A&M Past Alcorn State
Nov 30, 2011 | Men's Basketball
POSTGAME QUOTES
A&M HEAD COACH BILLY KENNEDY
"Obviously we're disappointed we didn't make a shot from the perimeter against a zone. We knew we were going to see some zone at some point. That's definitely been a concern, especially since Khris (Middleton) has been out. But we've got to be able to get some help from our bench and we're not getting a lot of help from our bench right now. I was committed to playing those guys, I didn't want to have to play our starters 28 to 35 minutes, and unfortunately I had to play them a little more than I wanted to. We've got to get more help from our bench or we're just going to have to shorten the rotation. The bottom line is you go 0-for-17 from three against a zone and against an opponent that you're supposed to beat, it's going to be difficult to look good. We had 13 turnovers in the second half and I think 9 of them were from our bench guys."
On the defensive effort by Elston Turner and Jamal Branch...
I thought defensively, once we picked up our ball pressure, we were able to speed them up and get some transition baskets especially the last 5 minutes of the first half. Those two did a good job, and I think the first 5 minutes of the second half we had good energy. Then when we subbed for whatever reason the defensive pressure dropped. We stopped guarding the dribble and started fouling.
On the 3-point struggles...
"If we go 0-for-17 again I'd be shocked. I don't know that I've ever had a team go 0-for-17 from the three. You've got to make shots, it helps fuel your defense. You don't make shots, defensively you don't have the same energy level-I don't care at what level you're playing. Still, we didn't play as well as we could have played."
On Naji Hibbert...
"Naji was more active than he's been, and that was good to see. He was the most productive guy off the bench for us."
ALCORN STATE COACH LUTHER RILEY
"I think the effort was okay. We gave up a lot of offensive rebounds. We gave up a couple of open shots. We know they want to push it in transition and we gave up a lot of uncontested layups. But overall I thought we did okay."
Were you pleased with your bench production?
"No doubt. We have three freshmen that really, really helped us out. They came in and did a pretty decent job after they settled down."
Were you surprised at A&M's long-range shooting?
"What we wanted to do was not give them a good look. We knew they wanted to play inside-out with Loubeau and Turner there in the paint. We wanted to mainly take some of their points away from them and contest the kick-out. It was a bad shooting night for them. We went zone for that reason, but unfortunately for us there were some situations where we gave up some second and third shots."
TEXAS A&M POSTGAME NOTES
Team
- Texas A&M held Alcorn State to 26.9 percent shooting in the first half ... over an 80-minute stretch of basketball (second half vs St. John's, all game vs A&M-Corpus Christi, first half vs Alcorn) the Aggies have held their opponents to a combined 26.7 percent shooting from the field (27-for-101).
- A&M has won 64 straight non-conference games at Reed Arena (dating back to start of 2005-06 season) and 77 consecutive regular-season, non-conference home games (dating back to 2003) ... the Aggies are 96-9 all-time in non-conference games at Reed Arena ... A&M has won 37 of its last 40 home games overall.
- With 42 points in the paint, A&M has now scored 57 percent of its points in the paint this season (226 of 394).
- A&M scored a season-high 20 fast-break points.
- The Aggies' 5 blocks were a season high and the most since swatting 5 against Washington last season.
Individual
- Dash Harris had season highs in assists (7) and rebounds (5) ... his 7 assists were one shy of his career high.
- David Loubeau matched a season high with 14 points.
- Naji Hibbert's 8 rebounds were a season high and one shy of his career best ... he also matched a season high with 6 points.
