Texas A&M
16-6, 7-3
Missouri
7-16, 1-9
Men's Basketball Stays Hot, Picks Up Road Win at Mizzou
Feb 07, 2015 | Men's Basketball
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) -- Danuel House scored 20 points and Jalen Jones added 16 to lead Texas A&M past Missouri 83-61 on Saturday.
The Aggies (16-6, 7-3) remained in second place in the Southeastern Conference after winning their seventh game in eight tries. The team lost 69-59 Wednesday at Mississippi.
Texas A&M shot 33 of 56 (58.9 percent) against Missouri and led by seven at halftime before gradually extending its advantage through the second half. A 3-pointer by House with 13:46 remaining in the first half put the Aggies up for good.
Wes Clark scored 15 points for Missouri (7-16, 1-9), which has lost nine consecutive games for the first time since the 1966-67 season, the last under coach Bob Vanatta before Norm Stewart started patrolling the Tigers' bench.
House and Jones paced the Aggies to a 62-50 win at Reed Arena on Jan. 21, in which each scored 12 points after intermission. House started 4 of 4 from 3-point range Saturday, scoring 14 points before the break to lead Texas A&M to a 38-31 halftime lead.
He added six more points in the final 20 minutes, along with eight by Jones. The Aggies outscored Missouri 44-22 in the paint, and a layup by Alex Robinson with 11:26 left pushed the team's lead to 15.
The Tigers would get no closer than 12 the rest of the way, and watched Texas A&M end the game on a 6-0 run.
TEAM RECORDS & SERIES NOTES
● Texas A&M improved to 16-6 on the season and 7-3 in SEC play on Saturday night with an 83-61 win over Missouri at Mizzou Arena.
● The Aggies have now defeated the Tigers twice this season, but still trail the all-time series 16-13.
TEAM NOTES
● Texas A&M shot 58.9 percent from the floor (33-of-56), marking its second-best shooting night of the season behind only a 60.8-percent shooting effort against Youngstown State on Dec. 13 … Additionally, the team's point total (83) was its third most this season as well as its highest since scoring 87 against New Orleans on Nov. 28.
● A&M took great care of the basketball in the contest, collecting 22 assists while committing just seven turnovers.
● In the paint, the Aggies owned a 44-22 scoring advantage.
● Balanced scoring saw A&M put four players in double-digit scoring for the seventh time this season.
● The Aggies used the starting lineup combination of Alex Caruso, Jordan Green, Danuel House, Jalen Jones and Kourtney Roberson for the 13th time this season (10-3).
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
● Junior guard Alex Caruso tied his career high by dished out 11 assists in the game and posted his fourth contest of 10 or more assists this season as well as the seventh of his career.
● Additionally, Caruso became just the sixth Aggie to notch 400 career assists as he now has 409 for his three-year career.
● Reigning SEC Player of the Week Danuel House reached the 20-point plateau for the fourth time this season, finishing with a game-high 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting.
● With a five-rebound performance against Mizzou, senior forward Kourtney Roberson took over sole possession of 10th place on A&M's all-time rebounding list … he entered the game tied with Jeff Overhouse, who collected 739 boards from 1970-73, and now has 744 career boards … Roberson also added 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting.
● Junior Jalen Jones and freshman Peyton Allen also reached double-digit scoring in the contest, finishing with 16 and 12 points, respectively … Jones was 6-of-9 from the floor while Allen made 5-of-7 field goal attempts.
● A&M head coach Billy Kennedy is now 66-55 in his fourth season at Texas A&M and 277-234 in 17 years as a head coach.
UP NEXT
● After back-to-back road games, the Aggies return home to Reed Arena for a pivotal three-game SEC homestand that begins against Georgia on Wednesday.
Head coach Kim Anderson
Opening statement...
"As far as the game goes, I was proud of my guys. We had guys playing all different positions. We did some stuff this morning to try to allow for the absence of the two young men, so I was proud of the way that we thought. Obviously I thought late in the game that we wore out, but you can't give up 70 percent in the second half and win."
On the reserve players stepping up...
"I thought they did a great job because when you have both of the young men who weren't here tonight who are both guards, wingmen, and kind of play the same position. We tried to show DA and Jakeenan some stuff this morning that could try and help us with playing that position. We changed some thingsup a little bit, not a lot because we didn't have much time, but I was proud of them. They've both been struggling and I thought D'Angelo and Jakeenan both came out and played extremely hard. Jakeenan got to the basket and got some rebounds and DA got some tip dunks and that's what we need. The problem that got created especially early was that we didn't do a good job of defensive transition because we normally would have three guys going back and we drive. Deuce came in and gave us some minutes and tried to help out as well."
On any disappointment...
"It's really disappointing as a coach, but obviously part of our job is to win basketball games, but part of our job is to help these guys grow up and help them understand. I've had some great conversations with Tramaine Isabell and I don't know where we're going. I want to win basketball games, but I said this when I was hired, and it's that I'm a teacher. I want to help these kids grow up and if this is the way I can help them grow up whether we win or lose, that's the way I'm going to do it."
On keeping the team encouraged...
"We have to keep grinding and come back tomorrow to get ready to play South Carolina. The great thing about basketball is that you play a lot of games. It's not like football where you have a whole week. We can feel sorry for ourselves until midnight, but then tomorrow we have to get ready to go on the road and play South Carolina."
Sophomore Guard, Wes Clark
On Texas A&M's high field goal shooting percentage...
"As a team, they had great movement and great cuts. Their guards made it difficult for us to guard and we got a fatigued at the end and it showed."
On the pressure that the short bench caused in the backcourt...
"It definitely it made tougher, but we definitely prepared for it. Coach got us ready and it is definitely no excuse for why we lost."
On shooting less in the second half after a strong offensive first half...
"A&M did a great job in the second half playing team defense. They made it a little more difficult."
Freshman Forward, Jakeenan Gant
On the team mentality when A&M went on a run...
"It is always tough, losing by five or losing by 20. It still counts as one loss. It just got rough for us."
On scoring more points this game than the past few contests...
"I guess we were just running more offense."
Texas A&M Head Coach Billy Kennedy
Opening statement...
"I am really proud of our guys for bouncing back, we shared the ball and had many unselfish plays. Missouri played really well, especially in the beginning of the game , and our guys continued to compete."
On Missouri's play in the second half..
"They had to play different defenses and do things they haven't done before. They gave great effort and we were surprised by their zone match up. I thought they did a good job with that, but we made shots and scored."
On getting efficient play from the offense tonight...
"Caruso had 11 assists and we shared the ball. We have guys with good character and just overall good guys , it took us some years to build the foundations we have now and it's good to see it all coming together."
Texas A&M Junior guard Danuel House
On their concerns were coming into this game...
"We were looking to key in on Wes Clark. He had a couple of big threes against us when we were at home and we know he's really a main part of their offense. We wanted to make sure he didn't make any big shots; he still played a great game but we just tried to do our best and we felt like we did a great job with that."
Team Stats
Game Leaders
Players Mentioned
