December 09, 2005
The Texas A&M Aggies (3-2) renew their series with the Sam Houston State Bearkats (2-3) for the first time since 2001 when the two teams meet Saturday at 7 p.m. at Reed Arena.
It will mark the 24th meeting of the Aggies and the Bearkats in the Highway 30 series. A&M holds a 20-3 advantage in the series that dates to 1975. The Aggies have won 10 straight games over the Bearkats dating to 1980.
It will also mark the first time for A&M Associate Head Coach Vic Schaefer to coach against his former team, Sam Houston, since he joined A&M coach Gary Blair?â„¢s staff in 1997-98 at Arkansas. Schaefer was the head women?â„¢s coach at Sam Houston from 1990-97. A&M assistant coach Amy Tennison will be coaching against her alma mater for the first time. Tennison starred at Sam Houston in the late 90?â„¢s.
Blair, who coached in the same league as Sam Houston during his tenure at Stephen F. Austin, has an 18-0 record against the Bearkats.
The Aggies enter the game after rallying to beat Washington, 79-65, this past Sunday at Reed Arena. A&M overcame a 13-point first half deficit to lead by 16 in the second half before winning by 14 points.
Freshman guard Takia Starks received her first start at point guard and poured in 25 points. She was named Big 12 Rookie of the Week. Starks is the fourth Aggie in the last two seasons to earn the honor. Last year, three Aggies, Morenike Atunrase, A?â„¢Quonesia Franklin, and Patrice Reado each took the honore three times.
A&M has been scoring the points in the early portion of the non-conference slate with each game the Aggies scoring 66 or more points. Four of the five games had A&M scoring 71+ points.
Freshman forward Danielle Gant leads the way for the Aggies in shooting at 59 percent while ranking second on the team in points per game at 11.8. Gant has scored double-digits in two games and no less than eight points in each game.
Gant was named to the All-Tournament Team in Hawaii after she scored 14 points against Cal State-Northridge, and 19 points against No. 17 DePaul.
The Aggies have been successful this season in blocking shots. A&M blocked a Big 12 Conference record 18 shots in the season opener which marked the second most in NCAA history. The squad followed that effort with 12 blocks against Cal State-Northridge in the first round of the tournament in Hawaii.
The Aggies rank No. 1 in the NCAA in blocks per game at 8.6.
A&M has won 15 of its last 19 games outside of Big 12 Conference opponents dating to last season. The stretch includes 12 straight leading to last season?â„¢s loss at SMS in the quarterfinals of the postseason WNIT.
A&M has won 11 straight non-conference games at Reed Arena dating to January 2004.
The Aggies?â„¢ roster is composed of 73 percent of players in their first or second year in the program.
Last season, the freshman class accounted for 53 percent of the team?â„¢s scoring and played in 52 percent of the available minutes.
Morenike Atunrase, the Big 12 Freshman of the Year last season, blocked 14 shots in the first five games. She now has 71 career blocks to rank sixth all-time at A&M. At 5-foot-10, Atunrase is shorter than all five players who rank ahead of her. She blocked a school record 57 shots last season.
Senior forward Tamea Scales has quiety been recording consistently impressive numbers. Scales, who moved to the four position this season from the five position last season is averaging 11.0 points and a team-best 8.2 rebounds. She has pulled down 24 offensive rebounds to lead the Big 12 in per game average at 4.8.
Scales has double-digits in three of five games and two double-doubles.