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Law, Carter too much for Durant, Longhorns

Feb 6, 2007 - 7:01 AM COLLEGE STATION, Texas (Ticker) -- Acie Law and Josh Carter capped an unbelievable 48 hours for Texas A&M.

Law had 15 points and eight assists in the first half and Carter poured in 15 points after intermission as the seventh-ranked Aggies jumped out early and pulled away late for a 100-82 victory over No. 25 Texas and superstar Kevin Durant in a Big 12 thriller.

Antanas Kavaliauskas added 18 points and 11 assists for Texas A&M (20-3, 8-1 Big 12), which beat eighth-ranked Kansas, 69-66, on Saturday for the first time to take over first place in the conference standings.

"I feel like if we just hold onto our position we can accomplish our goal of winning the Big 12 Championship," Law said. "There is still a long way to go but we feel that we have put ourselves in a good position."

Law played a magnificent floor game and Carter scored on a variety of 3-pointers, jumpers and drives after intermission as the Aggies fought through foul problems all night en route to winning 20 games for a third consecutive season for the first time in school history.

"I needed to take care of the ball (down the stretch)," Law said. "Make sure we get a good shot.

The Aggies shot 51 percent (33-of-65) in winning their 21st consecutive home game and holding their 34th straight opponent under 50-percent shooting. The Longhorns did become the first team to score more than 70 points against them this season.

"It was a great win for us against a really, really, really good team," Aggies coach Billy Gillespie said. "I never thought that if they scored 82 points we would win. They are hard to guard and we are awfully lucky to win."

Texas A&M weathered a four-minute flurry by the fabulous freshman Durant, who scored 12 points and grabbed five rebounds in the first four minutes of the second half to turn a five-point halftime deficit into a 58-57 lead.

The Aggies responded with a 12-3 run, sparked by five points from Carter and four from Kavaliauskas for a 69-61 lead with 11 minutes left before Law went to the locker room with an apparent left ankle injury. The star point guard returned 3 1/2 minutes later with A&M leading 76-72, and the Aggies then pulled away.

"We didn't guard anybody in the last four minutes. We were terrible," Texas coach Rick Barnes said. "I am disappointed in the fact that we were right where we wanted to be. I thought we did what we wanted to do to try to get to the bench and then we let them hurt us.

Law finished with 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting and a career-high 15 assists against just one turnover. Carter finished with 24 points on 9-of-17 shooting and added 10 rebounds and five assists as the Aggies overcame two starters fouling out.

"That's what I believe Josh can be on a daily basis," Gillespie said. "You know he is going to make shots if he gets them. Our guys did a great job of getting him some shots. He had three offensive rebounds and seven defensive rebounds. That was huge especially when Joe (Jones) and Antanas weren't out there. He grew up a lot."

Durant, who entered averaging 33.1 points and 13.8 rebounds in conference games, finished with 28 on 9-of-23 shooting and 15 rebounds. He was 4-of-8 from the arc and also contributed three assists, three blocks and three steals. The 6-9 sharpshooter didn't think that Texas A&M did anything special to stop him.

"They weren't doing anything special. I was just trying to get my teammates open," Durant said. "They came up with some big shots and they played well. They weren't doing anything to keep me from scoring I was just trying to get my teammates good shots."

Fellow Texas (16-7, 6-3) freshman D.J. Augustine added 23 points and made 12-of-13 free throws.

All five starters scored within the first five minutes of the game as the Aggies jumped to a 21-7. But led by Durant, who had 12 points in the first half and Augustine Texas got to as close as three as the fouls started piling up against Texas A & M. Law gave the Aggies a 45-40 edge with a floater in the final seconds of the first half.

"We knew what we had to do, we just didn't execute in the beginning," Augustine said. "We started off slow, we knew that we had to box out and play good defense. Some of their guys were in foul trouble and coach told us to drive it at them. That's what we did. We were giving them wide-open shots and their shooters were knocking down shots."