No. 4 Oklahoma 68, Texas A&M 64

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) _ Hollis Price, Oklahoma's leading scorer, was being hounded by Texas A&M, so Aaron McGhee knew the fourth-ranked Sooners needed a big game from someone else. He provided

Saturday, February 9th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) _ Hollis Price, Oklahoma's leading scorer, was being hounded by Texas A&M, so Aaron McGhee knew the fourth-ranked Sooners needed a big game from someone else. He provided it, scoring 21 points in Saturday's 68-64 victory.

``We just wanted to come out and try to execute our offense a little better,'' said McGhee, who also had 10 rebounds. ``They were boxing Hollis, so other guys had to step up and score. That's what I tried to do.''

The Sooners (19-3, 8-2 Big 12) took a 64-55 lead with 2:30 to play on a jumper by McGhee, what turned out to be Oklahoma's final field goal.

Texas A&M (9-15, 3-7) made three free throws and Larry Scott hit a 3-pointer with just under a minute left to make it 64-61. Oklahoma made three free throws, but Bradley Jackson closed the Aggies within 67-64 with a three-point play.

Price, who was held to 12 points, made one of two foul shots with 9.3 seconds remaining and Oklahoma held on for its 16th victory over Texas A&M in 17 meetings.

``If A&M plays this well for the rest of the season, they will win some more games,'' Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson said.

While the Aggies were committed to not letting Price beat them, they might have ended up beating themselves by shooting just 61 percent from the free throw line, going 17-for-28.

Conversely, Oklahoma was 19-for-23, though two of the misses were in the hectic final 20 seconds.

``We've worked on our free throws all year long,'' Texas A&M coach Melvin Watkins said. ``We just didn't hit them today. We played hard enough to win and it's disappointing.''

Nick Anderson led the Aggies with 19 points and Bernard King had 16 points and 11 rebounds.

Quannas White had 12 points and 12 assists for the Sooners.

Texas A&M led 27-26 with 4:11 left in the first half, but Oklahoma closed the half with a 10-3 run.