Texas A&M
21-12
Louisiana Tech
27-8
Men's Basketball Season Ends in NIT Second Round
Mar 23, 2015 | Men's Basketball
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP)-- Alex Hamilton scored 25 points and Louisiana Tech made 11 3-pointers as the Bulldogs rolled to an 84-72 victory over Texas A&M in the second round of the NIT on Monday.
Hamilton was 9 of 15 from the field, including 3 of 6 from distance, for Louisiana Tech (27-8). Kenneth Smith drained all four of his 3-point attempts and finished with 16 points and eight assists. The Bulldogs shot 51.7 percent from the field, including 63 percent in the second half.
A&M freshman point guard Alex Robinson continued his NIT breakout with 21 points, six rebounds and five assists. Jalen Jones added 16 points and seven rebounds.
Louisiana Tech led 35-34 at the half after Robinson drained a buzzer-beating 3. The Bulldogs outscored A&M 49-38 after the break.
A&M (21-12) was without leading scorer Danuel House, who sat out with a foot injury.
TEAM RECORDS & SERIES NOTES
● Texas A&M saw its season come to an end with a final record of 21-12 … the loss was just A&M's fourth inside Reed Arena this year (14-4) … Louisiana Tech, meanwhile, improved to 27-8.
● Texas A&M leads the all-time series, 4-3 … the win snapped a two-game winning streak for A&M over Louisiana Tech (2006 and 2012) and gave the Bulldogs their first victory over the Aggies since 1970.
TEAM NOTES
● Texas A&M recorded its 14th 20-win season in 2014-15, and the eighth in the last 11 years … only eight teams in the over 103-year history of the program have won more games in a season than the 2014-15 team did.
● Texas A&M is now 7-7 all-time in the NIT.
● The Aggies used the starting lineup combination of Alex Caruso, Jordan Green, Peyton Allen, Jalen Jones and Kourtney Roberson for the eighth time this season (5-3).
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
● The loss ended the careers of seniors Jordan Green and Kourtney Roberson … the pair combined to appear in 271 games while leading the Aggies to back-to-back postseason appearances.
● Kourtney Roberson appeared in his 142nd career game, a school record.
● Kourtney Roberson scored in double figures (10 points) for the 17th time this season … he finished his A&M career with 1,075 points to rank 29th all-time at Texas A&M … he also finished his career with 833 rebounds to rank seventh all-time.
● Jordan Green scored in double figures (14 points) for the ninth time this season … Green finished his A&M career with 630 points, 239 rebounds and 184 assists.
● Freshman Alex Robinson scored a career high 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting … he reached double figures for the third straight game and eighth time this year … Robinson's six rebounds were one shy of his season high.
● With only two other SEC teams still playing (Kentucky, Vanderbilt), junior Alex Caruso (178 assists) has a chance to lead the league in assists for the second consecutive season … if he does so he will be the first player since Florida's Nick Calathes (2008 & 2009).
● Junior Jalen Jones reached double-digit points 16 for the 25th time in 31 games.
● A&M head coach Billy Kennedy is now 71-61 in four seasons at Texas A&M and 282-240 in 17 years as a head coach.
TEXAS A&M HEAD COACH BILLY KENNEDY
Opening Statement…
“Louisiana Tech is very good. I was really impressed with their guard play. [Kenneth] Speedy Smith may be one of the best point guards we've played against all year when he's shooting the three like that. I thought their athleticism and depth, their ability to shoot the ball from the three-point line, and their ability to control the game on both ends was very good.”
On the team, especially the seniors…
“I'm really proud of this team; we had a good season, we were a tournament team. We maxed out with everybody on the team; our attitude was good. Jordan Green and Kourtney Roberson gave us all that they could give us. We've got to be able to build off of all of this, and there are a lot of good things coming. We'll continue to try and get better.”
On next year…
“Three seniors in Alex Caruso, Danuel House and Jalen Jones will provide us with experience and success that we as a team can lean on. We're in great position, and I'll go on record right now and say we'll be an NCAA Tournament team next year. We're really excited about the future.”
TEXAS A&M JUNIOR GUARD ALEX CARUSO
On the stagnant scoring in the second half…
“It goes back to before we're on offense, it really goes back to us playing defense. It's harder to execute when you have to take the ball out of bounds every time and let them set up their press. If we could've gotten rebounds and pushed it a little bit, it would have been easier for us to score. As bad as we executed offensively, we scored 72 points, which is a lot, especially considering we didn't have our leading scorer.”
LA TECH HEAD COACH MICHAEL WHITE
Opening Statement…
“Big win for us, for this team, and for this program. Anytime you can go to an SEC opponent or the BCS opponent in general and win on the road it's big because we don't get a lot of opportunities like this and anytime obviously you can advance in the NIT it's equally as big for this team again and for this program. If you want to know the biggest factors for the W in my opinion are these two guys right here [Hamilton and Smith]. I thought they were both terrific, really, really good games because arguably before I watched film, Alex's best game he hadn't had his best couple as of late so I thought he showed great resiliency and character by really stepping up and playing an incredible game, just really efficient gets 25 but five assists to one turnover played a great floor game as well. Then Speedy he continues to do stuff that doesn't always show up in the stat sheet. Although he got 16-8 and only had two turnovers, I thought he goes four for three but two or three of them were huge late clock shots for us. These two guys were terrific.”
On House's absence making victory easier…
“Yeah, there's no question. It's a huge win for us either way and they're, Texas A&M, is really good either way, with or without Danuel House. But obviously without a talent like that, they're probably not quite as capable of scoring as many ways.”
LA TECH JUNIOR GUARD ALEX HAMILTON
On personal performance…
“I think it was more of a mental thing, just getting over the bad games that I've had in the past and just believing in myself and trusting my teammates that have the upright, most confidence in me and believe that I could come out here and do what I do.”
On the bench…
“I mean they were huge being freshmen, I remember when I was a freshman that if it doesn't go right you just get down on yourself and we've just got to keep their heads up and tell them it's going to be alright and make the next shot.”
On excelling specifically on the big stage…
“Just living in the moment, being ready and preparing for it. I mean, it's just another basketball game except it's televised nationally so I just go out there and do what I've got to do.”
LA TECH SENIOR GUARD KENNETH 'SPEEDY' SMITH
On recipe for making three pointers in final seconds…
“No I just think me being confident, me just putting the work in and doing things that I worked at, so I just think that I was confident in every shot I took.”
On being hungry for wins…
“It makes me even more hungry. It makes me even more want to lead this team, makes me want to get in everyone's face even more, stronger, harder. I just want to challenge myself to be more of a leader, a vocal leader and that we'll have the opportunity to go to New York.”
Team Stats
Game Leaders
Players Mentioned
