Turner Leads A&M Past Alcorn State

COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Texas A&M didn't enjoy its latest win.

Ray Turner scored 16 points and the Aggies (No. 25 AP) overcame a sleepy start and awful shooting to defeat Alcorn State 56-44 on Wednesday night.

"Everyone is disappointed because of this game," Turner said. "Even though we got the win, it wasn't good enough."

David Loubeau added 14 points and Naji Hibbert had eight rebounds for the Aggies (5-1), who won their 64th consecutive nonconference home game.

KeDorian Sullivan led the Braves (1-6) with 11 points and eight rebounds.

A&M, in its most off-kilter outing of the early season, missed all 17 of its 3-point attempts.

"The zone has given us problems this year," Loubeau said of A&M's terrible night of shooting. "We've got to find a half-court offense and go from there."

Alcorn State was only 3 of 11 from beyond the arc.

"We're obviously disappointed we didn't make a shot from the perimeter against their zone," Aggies coach Billy Kennedy said. "Bottom line is if you go 0 for 17 from the 3-point line against the zone, it's going to be difficult to look good offensively."

One place the Aggies looked good was on the run, outscoring Alcorn 20-2 on the fast break, and 42-26 in the paint in overwhelming the Braves with their size, if not shooting acumen.

"We didn't want to give them a good look at the basket," Braves coach Luther Riley said of A&M's awful long-range shooting. "We wanted to take some of their points away by contesting the kick-out pass. It was just a bad shooting night for them, and we were in zone for that reason."

Alcorn led 9-8 with 11:33 remaining in the first half before a layup by Jamal Branch gave the Aggies the lead for good. A&M shot only 40.3 percent (25 of 62), while Alcorn was even worse at 32.7 percent (18 of 55).

Texas A&M, which has won three straight, is still without its top player, guard Khris Middleton, who is expected back in less than two weeks after recovering from surgery on a torn meniscus in his right knee.

"(Shooting) has been a concern, especially with Khris out," Kennedy said.

Alcorn State, which lost its sixth consecutive game, outscored A&M 30-16 off the bench, one of the Braves' few highlights on the night and yet another lowlight for A&M.

"We're not getting much help from our bench right now," Kennedy said. "We've got to get more help, or we're just going to have to shorten our rotation."

Texas A&M's five blocks were a season high, and the seven assists by Aggies point guard Dash Harris were also a season high.

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."

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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.