Texas A&M
7-2
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Dartmouth
5-2
Aggies Win Fifth Straight, Top Dartmouth 62-47
Dec 21, 2005 | Women's Basketball
Danielle Gant scored 11 points and grabbed seven rebounds for Texas A&M as it beat Dartmouth, 62-47, Wednesday at Reed Arena.
Gant scored seven of her points in the second half as A&M improved to 7-2 overall with its fifth straight win. Dartmouth fell to 5-2 overall. It marked the 13th straight non-conference win for A&M at home.
The Aggies missed their first nine shots and committed three turnovers over the first five minutes, but Dartmouth managed just a 2-0 lead. The Aggies first basket came courtesy of La Toya Micheaux at the 14:52 mark.
A&M?™s shooting struggles continued as it ultimately missed 15 of its first 17 shots while committing six turnovers during the first 10 minuets. Meanwhile, Dartmouth tallied seven turnovers as it shot 3-of-10 from the field for an 8-4 lead.
?The best thing going for us tonight was the crowd,? A&M coach Gary Blair said. ?I thought that was our best crowd of the year. We wanted to come back (from Las Vegas) and show them how much we had improved. But when you start out two out of 17, you start searching for answers and you try different combinations. When you play that sluggish and still take the halftime lead, you have to give us a little credit.?
Dartmouth?™s Ashley Taylor drained three straight three pointers to give the Big Green a 17-11 lead with 8:43 to play in the first half. She left game soon after with an injury and the Aggies managed to put together a 13-4 run to close the half.
?Besides those three threes they hit right in a row, that was basically it after our start,? Blair said.
A&M?™s first lead came after a turn around jumper by freshman Danielle Gant with 2:55 to play giving the Aggies a 20-19 lead. She followed that by stealing the ball two possessions later and converting a layup.
The Aggies closed the half shooting 50 percent on 8-of-14 shots as they led 24-21. It was the fewest first half points of the season for A&M.
In the second half, both teams?™ shooting was above 50 percent for most of the frame.
?We?™ve been working hard and there?™s no excuse really for the slow start,? A&M freshman Takia Starks said. ?We didn?™t really have our legs and not working our hardest on defense, but in the second half we had to go ahead and change all of that. We came out with the win.?
Starks scored eight of the Aggies?™ first 14 points in the second half. She connected on 5-of-8 shooting in the half and finished with 12 points. It marked the fourth game in the last five for Starks to post double-digit scoring.
?Right now she is our only consistent outside threat that we have,? Blair said. ?That?™s why you are going to see her in there more and more in there. And once she learns how to play both positions consistently you won?™t see her come out of the ball game.?
Dartmouth guard Angie Soriaga, from College Station?™s A&M Consolidated High School, tied the game in midway through the second half at 38-38 with a three-pointer from the left corner. She finished with 14 points.
?I was glad to see her come in and play hard here,? Blair said. ?Yes, we forced a lot of turnovers off of her, but she was probably a little ?... that was not her normal game.?
The Aggies answered with a 10-0 run to take a 48-38 lead as Dartmouth tallied five turnovers with no points for nearly six minutes. A&M outscored the Big Green 24-9 the remainder of the game.
Dartmouth could not get any closer than 49-43 the rest of the way.
?We?™ll take the win,? Blair said. ?When we can play that average and still win by 15 over a pretty good team we?™re going to take it.?
A&M received other solid contributions from Micheaux and senior Tamea Scales. Micheaux scored eight points, five rebounds, and two blocks while Scales added 10 points, five rebounds and two steals.
A&M point guard A?™Quonesia Franklin led the offense as she dished out a season-high eight assists.
The Aggies return to action against Eastern Washington (4-6) on Thursday at 6 p.m. at Reed Arena. The A&M men will follow with a game against Auburn at 8:30 p.m.
NOTES?-Takia Starks was selected as the State Farm Player of the Game. The crowd of 2,446 was the largest of the season.
