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Quotes: Source
OKLAHOMA HEAD COACH JEFF CAPEL
Opening Comment:
"First of all, congrats to Texas A&M. They made the plays down the stretch. They got off to a great start and shot the ball a lot better in the first half than they had during conference play so far, and we dug ourselves a hole. But I was proud of my guys. We have grown up a lot since we last went on the road. We came out in the second half ready to fight. With 13 seconds left, (Bryan) Davis misses two free throws, and we had a great look by a kid who in my opinion was the best player on the floor tonight in Tommy Mason-Griffin, and he just missed it. It's a shot I think that if he got it again, he'd knock it down. Then (Donald) Sloan came down and made two free throws. But again, I was proud of our guys. It hurts that we lost. It's disappointing. We had a lead and let it slip away. But I think we have grown up since the last time we went on the road."
On what A&M did in the first half to limit Willie Warren:
"Well, foul trouble did that. He picked up two fouls in the first five or six minutes. And when he came back in I thought he was a little passive. But I just thought their pressure knocked us back. We couldn't get into anything. We were standing around and were a little stagnant on offense. We stood and watched, and tried to do too much one-on-one. In the second half I thought we had better movement."
On the game's last play:
"The last play was that if we could hit Tommy (Mason-Griffin) in stride we would hit him. They did a good job defending that. The next option was to hit Tiny (Gallon). Tiny probably rushed it a little bit. As soon as he caught it he turned and didn't see the defense. 3.5 seconds is a lot of time. I think the guy who probably would have been open was Cade (Davis). But they defended it well."
On the close games between the teams and the mutual respect:
"The players are the main thing. There have been some heck of players on both teams. Mark (Turgeon) inherited a really good program on solid ground, and Mark's a really, really good coach. He's come in and put his stamp on the program and recruited well. All of these games have been heck of games since we've played them. There's a lot of respect between the coaching staffs, and the guys on the teams know each other."
OKLAHOMA GUARD TOMMY MASON-GRIFFIN
On the missed shots at the end:
"The first shot was a bad shot. Instead of shooting a perimeter shot I should have gotten to the basket and gotten free throws or an easy layup. That was something to learn from."
On tonight being a step forward for him:
"Tiny (Gallon) and Willie (Warren) were in foul trouble. I felt I had to be more aggressive on offense."
OKLAHOMA GUARD CADE DAVIS
On this loss compared to the one at Baylor:
"I think we showed maturity here in this road game better than we did at Baylor. Being down 10 at the half, coming out, being aggressive and going on the run we did showed some character. Hopefully we can take that and do it in the first half. We really dug a hole in the first half."
On A&M's defense shutting them down in the last few minutes:
"I wouldn't say they shut us down. I think we just missed some shots. If we make those it's a whole different ballgame. But they did pick up their pressure. Credit to them, they played a great game at the end."
On not letting the game get away in the first half:
"Towards the end we got stops here and there. We weren't consistent. We had some guys knock down some shots. Tommy played a great first half. We kind of hung in there. There wasn't a whole lot we did, we were just inconsistent in the first half. We made some shots when we needed to to kind of keep it where it was."
TEXAS A&M COACH MARK TURGEON
Opening Comment:
"That was a great college basketball game. First of all I was really impressed with the fans. Our student turnout was the third largest in history and I don't think we could have won the game without them. They gave us a lot of energy. It could have been the difference. We were great the first half. I told our guys we had to punch them in the mouth to start the second half, and we just didn't do it. We were bad on offense and even worse on defense. We put our heads down quick. We let our bad offense affect our defense and for a seven- to eight-minute stretch they took advantage of it. Our inefficiency on offense hurts us. We can't ever get away from anybody. But when the game was on the line we made plays. I told the guys after the game I think the Big 12 is the best league in the country. There won't be any easy games, home or away. That was proven again tonight."
On how the team managed to get the momentum back at the end:
"We hit a couple of shots in a row, got the crowd in the game, and defended better. We're still not rebounding the way we need to rebound. We got a little momentum, got our confidence back and our team defense was better. We made certain guys try to beat us and they weren't able to do that tonight."
On having confidence in B.J. Holmes:
"He's been great in practice. I thought he really guarded well and he made some shots against the zone early. A couple of other shots went all the way in and out for him. I thought B.J. was better defensively. His team defense was really good tonight. He competed. Our guys knew how important this game was. They knew in the end we had to have it, and they did what they had to do to get it done."
On his message to the team in timeouts when Oklahoma was on its run:
"Play with confidence on offense and just play great team defense. Don't let our offense affect our defense. We didn't run back a couple of times and gave up a few buckets easy in transition. We can't do that. We weren't getting offensive boards. If you can't make your shots, you better get a second shot. We just tried to stay positive. I think Oklahoma is the type of team where they kind of feed off things when they go well, and they did. They were a heck of a team in the second half."
A&M GUARD DONALD SLOAN
On the team's defense at the end of the game:
"It was great team defense. Everyone helped everyone. We had guys playing every shot. We had five guys trying to go rebound. All three of those things, kind of collectively together, helped us in that three-minute stretch."
On the second half stretch where no shots fell:
"It was kind of draining a little bit. You were doing everything you can on defense and it seemed like the basket was as big as an ocean to them. We weren't able to make shots. It was frustrating but I don't think we let it get to us too much."
On making his last two free throws:
"I made them. Being a leader, or one of the leaders on the team, I felt like I kind of owed it to everybody to make them, especially at a time like that. I felt like I had to do it. I was glad I made both of them."
A&M GUARD DASH HARRIS
On his five-point spurt to give the Aggies the lead:
"They were sagging off me pretty much the whole game. My shots weren't falling. I don't know if you guys notice, but I go to the end of bench and talk to D-Ro (Derrick Roland) a lot. He told me to keep shooting them. I was just down in my stance and ready to let them go both times. And they fell when I needed them to."
On the importance of the win:
"We said we wanted to get on a roll, and we said it would start here at home. We couldn't have done it without the students. The fans were awesome. This win was important. We needed this after losing two straight on the road."
A&M GUARD BJ HOLMES
On Coach Turgeon saying he would keep running plays for him even if his shots weren't falling:
"He always tells me he has confidence in me. All
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Notes: Source
• Oklahoma fell to 11-7 on the year and to 2-2 in Big 12 play with a 65-62 loss at Texas A&M. The Aggies won their 13th straight home game to improve to 13-5 and 2-2.
• The Sooners trailed by as many as 12 in the first half and were down 39-29 at halftime. Behind 45-37, OU used a 12-0 run to take a 49-45 lead and later led by seven (54-47) midway through the second half.
• Up by 60-56, OU was outscored 9-2 over the game's final two minutes. The Sooners were 0-for-3 from the field and committed two turnovers in that span.
• Freshman Tommy Mason-Griffin scored a career-high 21 points and handed out five assists against two turnovers in 39 minutes of action. He was 3-for-4 from 3-point range to increase his season percentage to .442.
• Sophomore Willie Warren scored 13 of his 14 points after the second half. Warren picked up two fouls in the game's first 3:45 and played 14 minutes in the first half.
• One game after recording his first career double-double (15 points and 11 rebounds against Missouri), junior Cade Davis tallied nine points, seven rebounds (his second highest career total) and a game-high three steals. Davis played all 40 minutes and was 3-for-5 from 3-point range.
• Freshman Tiny Gallon played just two minutes in the first half due to a pair of early fouls, but still managed 10 points and seven rebounds in 22 minutes.
• Texas A&M shot .625 from the field in the first half and .375 in the second.
• The Sooners are on the road again Saturday against Texas Tech (7 p.m. CST).
