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Carter powers Texas A&M past Florida A&M

Dec 29, 2007 - 11:06 PM COLLEGE STATION, Texas (Ticker) -- Texas A&M hardly ever loses at home, and Josh Carter made sure that did not change.

Carter scored 18 of his 20 points in the first half to lead the 11th-ranked Aggies to an 83-54 rout of Florida A&M on Saturday.

Freshman center DeAndre Jordan added 15 points for Texas A&M (12-1), which won its fifth straight game and improved to 33-1 in its last 34 home games.

Playing their first game since last Saturday, the Aggies withstood a mild test by the Rattlers (3-8) before using a pair of first-half runs to break the game open.

"We took some time off and it showed early," Texas A&M coach Mark Turgeon said. "Then finally at about the 10-minute mark our guys started guarding a little bit and did well pretty much the rest of the game. Our offense at times was very unselfish, we shared the ball. We had 14 assists on 18 buckets in the first half."

Carter scored 10 of his team's first 12 points but the Aggies led by just a point, at 18-17, nearly nine minutes into the contest.

Jordan, who leads the nation in field goal accuracy, had four points in a 10-0 spurt to build the lead to 28-17.

Carter then put the game out of reach, hitting a pair of 3-pointers and scoring eight points in a 17-5 burst that extended the margin to 47-28 with just over a minute left in the first half.

"We came out of the gates a little sluggish," Carter said. "We just had to calm down and pull it together."

One of two players averaging in double figures for Texas A&M, Carter hit four 3-pointers in the first half as the Aggies shot 64 percent (18-of-28) from the floor.

"We shared the ball well. Everyone came out ready to play," Carter said.

Texas A&M continued to pull away after the intermission, pushing the margin to 25 points after Jordan scored inside with 13 1/2 minutes remaining.

The 7-foot Jordan was 6-of-8 from the floor against Florida A&M, which won 21 games last season but lost for the fifth times in six outings.

"I just came out and relaxed as I was shooting," Jordan said.

"We did a lot of nice things," Turgeon said. "We shared the ball 21 assists on 31 baskets."

Akini Akini was the only player in double figures for the Rattlers with 10 points.