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Law sparks Texas A&M to first road win

Dec 23, 2006 - 7:30 AM AUBURN, Alabama (Ticker) -- Acie Law IV shook off some of his struggles to make sure that Texas A&M ended its road woes.

Law scored 21 points and Josh Carter added 12 as 13th-ranked Texas A&M rolled to an 87-58 victory over Auburn for its first road win of the season.

Expected to be a major contender for the Big 12 Conference crown, the Aggies (10-2) experienced some growing pains in becoming an elite program, dropping consecutive high-profile road games at Louisiana State and UCLA earlier in the month.

Although Texas A&M bounced back with home wins against Fordham and Jacksonville, co-leading scorer Law made sure that the momentum continued against a much more accomplished foe, shooting 8-of-13 from the field against Auburn.

"It was a big win for us, coming to play an SEC team," Law said. "We haven't been playing that good on the road. To come in here was a big win for us."

"Acie Law is as good a scorer as I have seen in a while," Auburn coach Jeff Lebo said. "I thought that he was terrific tonight. We didn't have any answers for him."

The senior guard had just 25 points on 11-of-31 (35 percent) shooting in the losses to the Tigers and Bruins.

Carter, who scored 40 points in the Aggies' previous two wins, continued his sizzling shooting, sinking 4-of-6 3-pointers.

The sophomore guard was clicking from the start, scoring nine of his team's first 11 points - all on baskets from the arc.

The last two 3-pointers ignited a 21-2 run, giving Texas A&M a 26-8 advantage on a pair of free throws by Joseph Jones with 9:19 to play. Jones and Law both had four points during the burst.

The Aggies extended that lead to 23 points with just under two minutes left before halftime.

Texas A&M, which has held seven opponents below 60 points this season, was also outstanding on the defensive end, holding Auburn to 30 percent (9-of-30) shooting and forcing nine turnovers.

"We shot so poorly to start with and they got in our heads," Lebo said. "We didn't know what to do at that point. That was a little immaturity on our part."

Holding a 43-23 edge at intermission, Carter connected on his final 3-pointer 27 seconds into the second half as Texas A&M went on to score at least 84 points for the third straight game.

Marlon Pompey had 11 points and Dominique Kirk and Donald Sloan contributed 10 each for Texas A&M, which shot 57 percent (32-of-56), including 6-of-13 on 3-pointers.

"It's one of those nights," Aggies coach Billy Gillispie said. "Their guys missed some shots and we made some shots. There wasn't a whole lot of fancy stuff going on, it was just that we made more shots than they did. They defend hard. They do everything well. The ball just didn't go in for them tonight."

Quan Powell scored 20 points and Josh Dollard 12 for the Tigers (9-4), who shot just 19 percent (6-of-32) on 3-pointers.