Texas A&M
16-4, 6-2
Oklahoma State
15-6, 3-5
Texas A&M 64, Oklahoma State 63
Jan 30, 2007 | Women's Basketball
January 30, 2007
Sophomore Danielle Gant (Oklahoma City, Okla.) hit the game-winning free throw with one second left to lift No. 18 Texas A&M to a 64-63 win over Oklahoma State Tuesday night before the second-largest crowd of the season with 7,191 fans in attendance at Reed Arena.
Danielle Green had tied the game for Oklahoma State (15-6, 3-5) on a layup with four seconds left to make it, 63-63. Gant, who finished with 16 points, hit 5-of-13 from the field and six of her 10 free throws. She also had a season-high 15 rebounds.
Sophomore La Toya Micheaux (Missouri City, Texas) added 15 points for the Aggies (16-4, 6-2), while junior A?™Quonesia Franklin (Tyler, Texas) had 10. Nine of Micheaux?™s 15 points came from the charity stripe as she converted a career-best 9-of-12.
Rashidat Sadiq led Oklahoma State with 23 points, including a crucial three-pointer with 14 seconds left to keep the Cowgirls within a point of Texas A&M. Sadiq hit five three-pointers on the night. Green added 12 points and Shaunte?™ Smith 10 for OSU.
Oklahoma State led 27-25 at the half. The Cowgirls shot 47 percent from the field, while Texas A&M shot only 33 percent.
For the first time in several weeks, A&M gets a four-day break between games as the Aggies host Kansas (6-14, 0-7) on Saturday, Feb. 3 at 6 p.m. Join the Aggies for ?Beat The Hell Outta Breast Cancer? night at Reed Arena and wear pink to the game. Tickets are available for $10 with $8 of the ticket sale benefiting the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
Postgame Notes?...With the victory, Texas A&M has now won six-straight in the all-time series versus Oklahoma State?...Sophomore Danielle Gant recorded her fourth career double-double with a team-high 16 points and 15 rebounds against the Cowgirls...Ironically, Gant has brought down double-digit boards on all three occasions she has faced Oklahoma State?...Her season-high 15 boards were one short of her career-high?...She has grabbed double-digit boards a career eight times?...Sophomore La Toya Micheaux was sent to the line a career-high 12 times and converted a career-best nine (.750), to mark her best percentage from the charity stripe this season and for her career?...Her two key free throws at the 6:10 minute mark of the second half tied the game up at 50-50?...Micheaux set new career-highs in points (15), free throws made (9) and free throws attempted (12)?...An announced crowd of 7,191 fans were in attendance which marked the second-largest crowd of the season at Reed Arena?...It was also the fourth-largest crowd in school history?...Junior LaToya Gulley made her first bucket with 12:02 left to play in the first half, to mark her second appearance in the A&M lineup since suffering a stress fracture that kept her out of nine games of the season...She entered the game with 0.03 seconds left in regulation at Oklahoma on Jan. 27?...For the seventh time this season, the Aggies trailed their opponent at halftime (-2), but have gone on to win the game four of those seven times including their last two victories against Nebraska (-4) and Oklahoma (-6)?...For the game, Oklahoma State?™s Rashidat Sadiq drained an opponent season-high five out of six three-pointers with an opponent season-high 83.3 accuracy from beyond the arc?...The last three-straight A&M games have been decided by two points or less with all ending in the wins column for the Aggies?...Five of A&M?™s eight league games played have been decided by three points or less with the Aggies posting a 4-1 record in those close game situations?...A&M shot 32.8 percent for the game which marked the seventh time this season that the Aggies have shot 30 percent and still won the ball game?...OSU (20) was the sixth-straight opponent to turnover the ball 20 times against the Aggie defense?...A&M has now put together three-straight wins in Big 12 Conference play which ties a program-best with the same scenario happening twice during the 2005-06 season?...The Aggies beat Texas Tech, Texas and Nebraska from Feb. 5-11, 2006 and Texas, Iowa State and Oklahoma State from Feb. 22-March 1, 2006?...A&M has gone 4-1 versus Big 12 South opponents thus far?...They now take a one-game lead in the all-time Big 12 regular season series with OSU at 11-10.
POSTGAME QUOTES
TEXAS A&M HEAD COACH GARY BLAIR
On the game and the season-high attendance at Reed Arena ?...
?I?™m happy for all of those elementary kids that were able to come to the game. Chanee (Reed) from the marketing department came up with that promotion and it was the best received promotion we?™ve had in a long time. It was so much fun seeing those kids up in the stands. I ran out of candy. We had a crowd that would not let us give up. It didn?™t take a rocket scientist to figure we weren?™t playing that well and Oklahoma State was making us pay for every defensive mistake that we made. They hit some timely threes and (Rashidat) Sadiq was good. She hit the threes under pressure. Their point guard did a great job of running the show as you can tell by her assist-to-turnover ratio. We just didn?™t play our normal Aggie defense. At the end, I thought we made the stops that we had to have. It was a game of big plays down to the end. This is the way the whole season is going to go. I hope that we have enough plays and enough pressure free throws that we can do it.?
On the end of the game ?...
?(Danielle) Gant is always on the boards and made the play. We told her to make the first and miss the second (free throw). She made it look too good and almost made it. It?™s hard to tell a kid that, when they?™ve never practiced missing a shot. I was so proud of our kids and our fans for sticking in there and not giving up on us. Micheaux was 9 out of 12 from the line. She can handle pressure more than anyone on this team. She?™s not afraid of failure. I?™m so happy for her that she played very well again. I liked our transition in the second half. We could not have won it without our crowd.?
On Oklahoma State ?...
?Let?™s talk about Oklahoma State. They are the most improved team in our conference. They are going to win a lot more games this year. You used to say that you had two wins against Oklahoma State. You don?™t have that anymore, nobody does. This is how good this league is and how good the coaches are. I am just happy to be a part of it. Give them a lot of credit on that inbounds play. We were not screening well to get open and we had to take the timeout.?
TEXAS A&M SOPHOMORE GUARD/FORWARD DANIELLE GANT
On the play being reviewed at the end of the game and her 15-rebound outing ?...
?I knew I had gotten fouled. Nothing was going through my mind except going to the line and making my free throws. As for my rebounding, I kept moving around. Coach (Blair) kept on telling us that OSU was a monster on the boards. All of their players rebound. He was just telling me to go in there and get the rebounds that I could get.?
TEXAS A&M SOPHOMORE CENTER LA TOYA MICHEAUX
On her free throws ?...
?After practice yesterday, I spent some time with Lenka (Zimova) shooting free throws in the practice gym. Coming back from the Oklahoma game, we were watching Courtney Paris shoot her free throws. Coach (Blair) told me he wanted me to shoot my free throws like that ?- with my right foot forward and left foot back and getting that push. I asked Lenka how she shot her free throws and she said the same way. I worked on it in practice and luckily, I went 10-for-10. During the game, I told Lenka this is for you. They were going in. I think I have found my new routine and a new way of shooting free throws.?
OKLAHOMA STATE HEAD COACH KURT BUDKE
On Texas A&M ?...
?First of all, I want to say how proud I am of our team. I think this is one of the toughest, if not the toughest, place to play in the Big 12, because of the style of play Coach Blair has his players doing. They?™re aggressive, physical, quick and I look for a lot of big things from them this year. They?™re going to have a great run at the end of the year.?
On the game ?...
?We?™ve really been struggling shooting the ball this year, but we?™ve hung in and fought. We?™ve played a lot of people close. We kept telling the kids that if we just shoot close to 40 percent one of these nights, we?™re capable of beating a lot of teams. I thought tonight, obviously, we shot a lot better percentage wise and gave ourselves a chance. Give them credit for making the plays at the end. I wish I would have had a timeout at the end. There?™s nothing we can do about it. We were waving our kids to get back as quick as they can. They were excited and they thought they were doing the right thing. It?™s something that we?™ll show them on film. Maybe, we won?™t make the same mistake next time. They competed and that?™s all you can ask of a team is that they compete for 40 minutes.?
OKLAHOMA STATE SENIOR FORWARD RASHIDAT SADIQ
On knocking down her three-pointers against A&M ?...
?I was just reading what the defense was going to give me. My teammates set good picks to allow me to get open.?
On the outcome of the game ?...
?That?™s one place where we really need to grow as a team. When we tie the game like that, we need to send the game into overtime. We really have to learn from our mistakes.?
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