Texas A&M
CENTENARY
Aggies Wrap Up Non-Conference Slate with 90-66 Victory over Centenary
Jan 02, 2003 | Men's Basketball
January 02, 2003
Antoine Wright scored 22 points and Bernard King added a double-double as the Aggies rolled past Centenary 90-66.
Texas A&M (8-3) went on an early 13-0 run to take a 15-2 lead and never trailed. King posted his second double-double of the season, scoring 17 points with 10 assists.
Centenary (5-7) lost its third straight game and was outscored by 24 points for the second straight game.. Andrew Wisniewski scored 23 first half points for the Gents to cut an early Aggies lead to 39-36 at halftime.
Centenary cut the lead to one on the opening possession of the second half. Texas A&M responded with a 15-0 run early in the half to take a 54-38 lead.
Wisniewski picked up his third and fourth fouls in the first seven minutes of the second half and did not score the entire period as A&M cruised through the final 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, King picked up his scoring for the Aggies, scoring 15 of his points in the final period and adding seven assists down the stretch. Leandro Garcia-Morales added a season high 16 points to seal the game.
A&M shot 60-percent for the game and scored 27 points at the free throw line. Centenary committed 29 fouls during the game as the starting line-up got in foul trouble early in the second half. The Gents were also plagued by a 23-12 turnover deficit.
Postgame Quotes
Texas A&M guard Leandro Garcia-Morales: "We changed our defense in the second half. We went to a triangle and two on the kid who was scoring all the points (Wisniewski). We were able to build our lead on our defense. Bernard (King) played some 4 for us and distributed the ball and that helped us a lot. I've been working in practice to be more aggressive. Last year in junior college I played like that and that's the way I like to play."
Texas A&M head coach Melvin Watkins: "We couldn't get much going early. We didn't have our juices flowing. We challenged the team in the locker room at halftime and I was pleased with the second half effort. (On 8-3 start) Coming into a season, you always try to project where you will be after non-conference play. We'd love to be 11-0, but we thought if we were 8-3 that would be the least of where we would want to be. The three losses were not where I expected them to be, but that really doesn't matter. It's nice to not have a losing record at this time so you're not always trying to dig yourself out of a hole. We're in a good position going into conference play and I'm happy about it. (On Antoine Wright's defense of Wisniewski in the second half) We like Antoine as a defender. He's our leading scorer but we also can slide him over as a defensive stopper. He's got a long and lanky body that gives people trouble. That kid he was guarding (Wisniewski) was tough and he could put the ball in the basket. Bernard (King) got 17 and 10 and that's a double-double. He can do a lot of things for us. We put him at the traditional 4 in the high post offense and that was effective. (On Garcia-Morales) We're trying to get him to be more offense conscious. He works very hard at his shooting and he's a good shooter, but he hasn't been very agressive offensively because he's focused on leading the offense. It's an area we think we can improve on if he can be more aggressive."
Centenary head coach Kevin Johnson: "I thought the Aggies got off to a good start. They shot 60 percent for the game and when a team shoots that well, they tend to have a good game. We knew it was going to be tough. We were able to score a lot early to keep it close, but we couldn't sustain it. (On Wisniewski's hot start) I actually worry when he scores that much early in the game because it gets us out of our offensive rhythm and we didn't have that in the second half."
Postgame Notes
- Leandro Garcia-Morales scored a career-high 16 points with six assists. His previous high was 10 against LSU.
- Antoine Wright scored 22 points, his 10th straight game in double figures and his fifth 20-point effort of the season.
- A&M made 60.4 percent from the field, the second straight home game the Aggies have made better than 60 percent. A&M made a season-high 64.9 percent against Louisiana-Monroe on Dec. 22.
- Bernard King scored 17 points with 10 assists, his second double-double of the season and the eighth of his career. King has scored in double figures in 9 of his 10 games this season and in 83 games in his career. King needs 88 points to become A&M's career scoring leader and needs 140 to break the Big 12 record.
