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Carter, Law shoot Texas A&M over Idaho State

Nov 25, 2006 - 10:26 PM COLLEGE STATION, Texas (Ticker) -- Texas A&M's backcourt of Josh Carter and Acie Law IV were hardly off the mark against Idaho State.

Carter and Law combined to score 48 points on 18-of-25 shooting as the 10th-ranked Aggies continued their unbeaten start with a 74-44 victory over the Bengals.

Carter finished with a career-high 26 points on 9-of-11 shooting, including 8-of-11 on 3-pointers to tie the school record for most baskets made from the arc. His previous high was 25 against Texas in the Big 12 Tournament last season.

"I wasn't aware of my numbers," said Carter, who sank four 3-pointers in each half. "I knew I was doing well but like I said, I was not aware of the exact numbers."

"Josh did a great job," Texas A&M coach Billy Gillispie said. "He shot with more confidence. He's a long way from where he needs to be but he's capable."

Entering the game scoring 10.5 points on 43 percent (14-of-33) shooting, Carter said that a hint from a coach in practice helped lead to his breakout.

"I had been shooting bad at practice all week and today during shootaround one of the coaches told me I was leaning back every time I shot," he said. "He told me I needed to step up and focus. So today I really focused on staying straight up and focusing on the rim."

Jerald Brown set the 3-point mark against Nebraska on January 11, 1997, and Bernard King equaled that nearly three years later.

Law, the team's second-leading scorer, had 22 points on 9-of-14 shooting. The senior guard connected on his only 3-point attempt of the game, and Texas A&M (5-0) finished 12-of-16 from long range for the contest.

Even though the total fell one short of the record 13 the Aggies had against Baylor on February 2, 2000, the 75 percent effort from the arc was the highest in school history with 10 or more attempts.

Carter and Law were given opportunities early as Idaho State opted to focus on shutting down the Aggies' inside might.

"Josh Carter was phenomenal," Bengals coach Joe O'Brien said. "We tried to run a 3-2 zone to keep the post's touches to a minimum. It's designed to keep the ball out of the middle. By paying attention to the bigs, we let the guards come in and hurt us."

Dominique Kirk added eight points for Texas A&M, which continued its stretch of superb defensive efforts to start the season by holding Idaho State (1-4) to 29 percent (15-of-52) shooting.

Texas A&M limited its third opponent this season to less than 50 points. In all, the Aggies have not allowed any foe to score more than 60 points.

Despite that fact, Gillispie still had problems with the team's defensive performance.

"Ours guys defended well but allowed too many easy baskets with no help," he said. "We reverted back to individual defense rather than team defense. When you're able to take away what the other team wants to do it forces them to dribble. Our goal is to always make them dribble, we've just got to do a better job of guarding it."

David Schroeder scored 14 points for the Bengals, who trailed 37-24 at the half due in part to 8-of-28 (29 percent) shooting.

Akbar Abdul-Ahad and Matt Stucki scored 11 points each for Idaho State, which was beaten on the boards by a 36-27 margin.