Texas A&M
10-2
Western Illinois
3-10
Texas A&M 70, Western Illinois 36
Jan 02, 2007 | Women's Basketball
January 02, 2007
Sophomore La Toya Micheaux (Missouri City, Texas) recorded her first career double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds, two blocks and five steals to lead No. 17 Texas A&M to a 70-36 victory over Western Illinois Tuesday night at Reed Arena.
Junior A?™Quonesia Franklin (Tyler, Texas) scored a season-high 17 points for the Aggies (10-2) and sophomore Takia Starks (Houston, Texas) added 13. Franklin shot a career best 5-of-7 from beyond the three-point arc.
Texas A&M scored 30 points off 29 Western Illinois turnovers. Stephanie Lovingood came off the bench to score 13 points and grab 11 rebounds for Western Illinois (3-10). She also had one blocked shot.
A&M led 31-16 at the half. WIU was only 5-of-22 from the floor in the first half and ended the night shooting 28.9 percent (13-of-45) from the field. The Aggies shot 44.1 percent (30-of-68) for the game.
Up next, the Aggies will open Big 12 Conference play at Kansas State (12-1) on Saturday, Jan. 6 at 2 p.m.
Postgame Notes?...For the first time this season, A&M used the starting lineup of A?™Quonesia Franklin, Takia Starks, Katrina Limbaha, La Toya Micheaux and Lenka Zimova?...It was Zimova?™s third career start and second of the season?...The Aggies take a 1-0 lead in the all-time series with Western Illinois and remain an undefeated 12-0 versus opponents hailing from the Mid-Continent Conference?...The second-largest crowd of the season packed Reed Arena with 6,389 fans in the stands to mark the fourth-largest crowd in school history?...Franklin scored a season-high 17 points against the Westerwinds, to mark her fourth game of the year to record double figures?...She had a career-and season-high five three-pointers?...WIU?™s 16 first-half points were the fourth fewest by an opponent this season in the first half of play?...Micheaux recorded her first career double-double with a career-high 14 points and 11 rebounds?...A&M had a season-high 20 steals for the game?...Starks turned in her fifth-straight double-digit game with 13 points?...WIU committed 29 turnovers, the fifth opponent this season to turn over the ball more than 29 times in a contest?...The Aggies registered their third-straight undefeated season in non-conference play at home with an 8-0 record at Reed Arena.
POSTGAME QUOTES
TEXAS A&M HEAD COACH GARY BLAIR
On Micheaux?™s double-double performance ?...
?When you hustle like La Toya (Micheaux) did in that game, a lot of good things are going to happen for you. Of course, the other team helped us out because they didn?™t have much of an inside game. This is a confidence builder for La Toya. What we are going to have to do is get that type of minutes out of her in Big 12 Conference play. The whole storyline was Micheaux. She did an outstanding job and I liked how she competed and hustled tonight.?
On Western Illinois ?...
?Western Illinois gave us some good competition. I thought they were very well coached. Stephanie Lovingood was like a smaller version of (Damitria) Buchanan for us. She snuck herself in underneath and did a good job. She?™s a good post player.?
JUNIOR POINT GUARD A?™QUONESIA FRANKLIN
On her season-high 17 points for the game?...
?Coming into the game, Coach (Blair) said he wanted the old Aqua back from the end of January last year. I came in more patient instead of forcing the longer shots. I just relaxed and let the shots come to me.?
SOPHOMORE CENTER LA TOYA MICHEAUX
On the team?™s defensive effort against Western Illinois ?...
?It was just energy. I don?™t know where it all came from. We did a great job of talking on defense and it just came out of nowhere. We were trying to play both ends of the floor. We played team basketball. They (WIU) came out pretty strong in the second half. Once again, we came out and played team defense. Team defense helped us win the game.?
WESTERN ILLINOIS HEAD COACH LESLIE CRANE
On the game ?...
?We stayed with them throughout the game. We had some breakdowns in the second half when I had some of my youngsters in the game. But overall, I am very pleased with how we played because we kept fighting. I have seen a lot of tape where teams come in here and melt down. We had flashes of it, but I think overall I?™m happy. We wanted to make them shoot over the top of us and not let them get anything easy inside. I feel like our posts did a good job helping each other out and not letting them get anything easy.?
On keeping up with Texas A&M throughout the game ?...
?I am happy with the things that we are doing. We stayed with the No. 17-ranked team in the nation in rebounding and if we can do that we will do fine in our conference. You have to control the tempo of the game with your rebounding. If you outrebound people, you are going to win. For what we are going to be doing in our conference, we are going to be fine.?
