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NORMAN, Oklahoma (Ticker) -- Oklahoma was perfect at home and Texas A&M had never won here. The result was predictable. Aaron McGhee scored 22 points as the 11th-ranked Sooners opened Big 12 Conference play with their 10th straight victory, an 89-63 rout of the hapless Aggies. Andy Slocum scored the game's first basket for Texas A&M but that may have been his team's lone highlight. The Sooners went on a 14-2 run, capped by a steal and layup by Hollis Price for a 14-4 advantage that prompted a timeout by the Aggies. "The thing that impressed me the most about our team's performance tonight was our defense during the first fifteen minutes of the first half and the first seven minutes of the second half," Sooners coach Kelvin Sampson said. "This was a good conference game for us and I was pleased with our effort." Oklahoma (11-1, 1-0 Big 12) used a 13-1 run for a a 29-8 advantage on a 3-pointer by Price with just under seven minutes left in the first half. The Sooners settled for a 42-26 halftime lead after Texas A&M's Andy Leatherman drilled a 3-pointer before the buzzer. Bernard King opened the second half with a layup for Texas A&M (6-9, 0-1) before the Sooners used a 14-2 surge for a 56-30 advantage with 16:18 left. McGhee had a pair of 3-pointers among his eight points in the run. "I wanted to go out there and play as hard as possible," McGhee said. "We're on a good win streak here and we wanted to keep it up. We saw some other Big 12 games today and the favored teams lost. That wasn't going to happen here if we had anything to do with it." Oklahoma led by as many as 36 points in the second half. The Sooners improved to 9-0 at home and 8-0 here all-time vs. Texas A&M. Price had 10 of his 14 points in the first half and Daryan Selvy came up with 18 off the bench for Oklahoma, which shot 60 percent (18-of-30) in the second half and placed six players in double figures. The Sooners converted 22-of-27 foul shots. "I just wanted to come out and sustain the pace our team had set," Selvy said. "We needed to finish strong and and I just wanted to do all I could to help us come out on top." The balanced attack offset a poor night by Oklahoma forward Ebi Ere, who made 3-of-13 shots for 11 points. Quannas White and Jason Detrick each scored 10. Slocum collected 22 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Aggies, who came off a 73-63 loss to Centenary and a 96-62 defeat at North Carolina. Texas A&M has lost eight of its last nine. "He (Slocum) really battled out there," Aggies coach Melvin Watkins said. "We have been hoping to get some offensive from him and we got that tonight. He was gaining confidence and our players were gaining confidence and going to him." King suffered through a horrific all-around game, scoring just eight points and committing eight turnovers. The Aggies had 22 for the game and are 1-16 all-time against Oklahoma. However, King was not the only Aggie to suffer through a bad performance. The starting forward tandem of Nick Anderson and Larry Scott combined to make just 1-of-12 shots for seven points and six boards and did not see action for much of the second half. "I have had to make some changes on the team and deal with some attitudes," Watkins said. "There have been some internal problems we needed to deal with and now we need to get back to the business of playing basketball." Texas A&M held a 36-35 rebounding edge and converted 22-of-25 free throws. |
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