Tech adds Aggies to Top-10 triumphs

? Bob Knight never has been a fan of the three-point shot. But he waffled a smidge after Texas Tech beat the second Top-10 team it has faced in five days.

The Red Raiders hit only seven field goals in the second half of their 70-68 win over No. 6 Texas A&M on Wednesday night, but five of them were from beyond the arc.

“That doesn’t make me feel any better about three-point shots,” Knight said. “I don’t like it, didn’t like it, not going to like it. It was good tonight, though.”

Martin Zeno sank a free throw with 24.9 seconds remaining to put Tech up 68-67. The Aggies had a chance with 9.3 seconds remaining, but Zeno stole the inbounds pass from Dominique Kirk to Joseph Jones and was fouled. He sank both free throws to seal the win. He finished 13-of-14 from the line.

Tech beat then-No. 5 Kansas, 69-64, Saturday.

“I think it’s a unique situation for kids to have been able to beat two highly ranked teams in a five-day period,” Knight said. “That was a good thing for our players to see that they could do that.”

As they did Saturday, most of the 5,898 students – many who began camping out for tickets Tuesday afternoon – swarmed the floor after the win. That’s the most students ever in Tech’s United Spirit Arena, which opened in 1999, and they were surrounded by a near-sellout crowd.

Knight acknowledged that he bought food for some of the students “because I thought they might be (damn) hungry.”

The loss snapped the Aggies 11-game Big 12 win streak, the longest in school history.

Tech (15-5, 4-1 Big 12) hit only one field goal in the final 10:11 of the game, but made 13-of-18 free throws. Darryl Dora hit a three-pointer with 1:03 remaining to put Tech up 67-66, but Joseph Jones hit a free throw to tie it at 67.

Aggie coach Billy Gillispie said Knight was a great coach and his offense is a reflection of that.

“We haven’t seen a motion offense as well organized,” he said. “I mean it’s the master offense and the master does a great job of doing it. It’s disappointing because we lost and it’s disappointing because they got so many foul shots and they made them.”

Acie Law scored 26 points, and Kirk had 12 to lead the Aggies (16-3, 4-1).