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Texas A&M takes down Oklahoma State

Jan 21, 2007 - 6:27 AM COLLEGE STATION, Texas (Ticker) -- A combination of Texas A&M's defense and a triple-overtime marathon on Tuesday took the punch out of Oklahoma State's offense.

Acie Law IV scored 16 points to lead the eighth-ranked Aggies to a 67-49 victory over the No. 14 Cowboys in a Big 12 Conference showdown.

Texas A&M (16-2, 4-0 Big 12) held Oklahoma State to its lowest point total of the season and less than half of what the Cowboys scored in Tuesday's dramatic 105-103 marathon victory over Texas.

"It feels good, Oklahoma State is a good team," Law said. "To get a victory against them feels good. We have to put this one behind us because we have a very good Texas Tech team later this week. This is a huge victory for us and it means a lot to our team."

The Aggies led by as many as 15 points in the first half and 38-28 at intermission, but the Cowboys charged back to close the deficit to 40-37 with 14:31 to play.

From there, Texas A&M turned up its trademark defense, holding Oklahoma State (16-3, 2-2) to eight points over the next 12 1/2 minutes to win its ninth straight game and move into first place in the Big 12, one-half game ahead of Kansas.

The Aggies have allowed just one team - Colorado - to score more than 65 points against them this season.

"There were two things we talked about coming into this game," Cowboys coach Sean Sutton said. "Number one was getting off to a good start. When you go on the road against a good team in an atmosphere like this and you dig yourself a hole early, you're asking for problems. ... We got down double figures and at that point you're playing uphill."

Antanas Kavaliauskas and Joseph Jones added 14 and 13 points, respectively, for the Aggies and also did a strong job in limiting Cowboys leading scorer Mario Boggan to 11 points.

Boggan was coming off a 37-point, 20-rebound performance against Texas, which including the game-winning 3-pointer with 3.2 seconds remaining.

"We just wanted to come in and limit his touches," Jones said. "We knew that he had been playing well and he had been on fire. We just tried our best to slow him down. I guess we did a good job. We got another conference win. You have to enjoy every conference win that you get."

Texas A&M has won 16 consecutive home games and improved to 46-5 at Reed Arena under coach Billy Gillispie.

"Joe (Jones) did a good job. Antanas did a good job," Gillispie said. "I thought our other guys did a really good job of moving the ball and getting the ball inside. It was a physical game - I think that really takes its toll when you are trying to shoot the ball."

JamesOn Curry scored 20 points to lead the Cowboys, who shot just 32 percent (12-of-37) from the field.

"They are a well-coached team and they play together out there on the court, they are a unit," Curry said. "We haven't won a good game on the road - that's going to define our whole season. We can win at home no doubt, but we have to go on the road and do the same thing. This would have been a perfect opportunity."