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Law's 31 lead way in win over Baylor

By RICHARD CROOME
Eagle Staff Report

When it came to intensity and physical play, Baylor brought it's A game to Reed Arena on Saturday.

Texas A&M's players see it and more everyday in practice, so they just took it in stride, made their free throws, thwarted every Baylor run and stayed tied with Kansas atop the Big 12 conference race with a 97-87 victory.

"Guys are out there competing, and whenever you're competing and trying to get a big victory, you don't take things personally," A&M's Acie Law IV said of the physical play. "You're just trying to win. A lot of credit goes to them playing the way they did on the road."

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Buy this photo Eagle Photo/Gabriel Chmielewski Texas A&M's Dominique Kirk draws a foul from Baylor's Henry Dugat while attempting a layuo in the Aggies 97-87 win Saturday at Reed Arena. Kirk had 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting.

Law had a season-high 31 points against Baylor's feisty defense. The Bears (13-14, 3-11) committed 31 fouls. Their two big men both fouled out, and four other Bears finished with four fouls.

A&M (24-4, 12-2) cashed in at the free-throw line, hitting 35 of 44. Law was a perfect 9 of 9, and Joseph Jones, who took the brunt of Baylor's aggressive style, was 12 of 14.

"They are a very physical team, big inside," said Jones, who had 22 points. "It was just a regular Big 12 game inside. It's very physical in the Big 12, and we were just getting after it."

Twice Jones and Baylor's Josh Lomars were brought together by the officials and warned about the physical play. The 7-foot, 265-pound Lomars, who spent most of the afternoon setting screens and trying to push Jones out of the lane, fouled out moments after the game was stopped because Marlon Pompey took an elbow in the midsection.

"Everybody brought it today, and it was an intense game," Baylor guard Curtis Jerrells said. "I think we did a good job of playing them physically. They have two big guys on their side, and I credit our bigs for holding off and playing them tough today."

A&M led throughout. The closest the Bears got after the opening minutes was 44-42 on a Kevin Rogers' three-point play fueled by an alley-oop pass from Jerrells.

The Aggies scored on their next seven possessions with Dominique Kirk making four baskets and two free throws to push A&M's lead to 61-48.

Kirk, who was injured early in the Oklahoma State game Wednesday and failed to score, had a season-high 17 points. He also came dangerously close to spending the game on the bench.

"I told him if he thought about his shot again instead of catching the ball and shooting it, he wasn't going to play anymore," A&M coach Billy Gillispie said. "Then he made the two big 3s. But he was thinking a little bit too much early about trying to make a shot. If he was out there and open, he better shoot it or otherwise he wasn't going to play."

During his personal run, Kirk got inside for his first basket, made two free throws the next time down, and after Jones hit a jumper, Kirk drove the baseline for two before draining the two 3s.

"I just stopped hesitating and started shooting the ball," Kirk said. "That's the first thing in my mind. I know coach has confidence in me, and I know he wants me to go out there and play hard, so that's what I try and do for the team."

Baylor fell behind by 10 or more points seven times in the second half. Each time, Jerrrells, who had a season-high 27, and Henry Dugat, who scored 22 off the bench, responded.

A&M's biggest lead didn't come until 1 minute, 21 seconds remained. Law made two free throws to put the Aggies up 95-81.

"Give credit to Acie and the A&M players for coming up big down the stretch," Baylor coach Scott Drew said. "Whenever we came close, they had all the answers, and that's what you expect from an experienced team that is coached well."

Even after falling behind by 14, Baylor kept battling. The second youngest team in the Big 12 fouled four more times and used all of its timeouts as the Bears extended the game as long as they could.

"If you're down 10, that's a four possession game, and if you have a young team and have had a ton of close games and you've only got a few opportunities to play games, I'm going to coach them to the end," Drew said.

The Aggies added to the lengthy game by calling two timeouts in the final seconds. Gillispie said he called the second timeout because the Aggies couldn't get the ball inbounded.

Led by Law and Jones, A&M had all five starters score in double figures for the first time this season.

A&M's bench only managed two points.

"When you get 95 points from your starters, two will work," Gillispie said.