Texas A&M
8-1
New Orleans
5-4
Texas A&M 73, New Orleans 44
Dec 09, 2007 | Women's Basketball
December 09, 2007
Junior Danielle Gant (Oklahoma City, Okla.) scored a career-high 28 points to lead the 11th-ranked Texas A&M women?™s basketball team to a 29-point rout of New Orleans, 73-44, Sunday night at Reed Arena.
Gant shot 10-of-12 from the field and 8-of-9 from the free-throw line to extend the Aggies?™ win streak to a school-best 22 consecutive home games and fifth-straight of the season. She recorded her eighth career double-double with a game-high 14 rebounds which was two short of her career-best in the category. Gant scored 16 of her 28 points in the second half of play.
Junior La Toya Micheaux (Missouri City, Texas) contributed 11 points to the winning cause including seven of A&M?™s first 13, while junior Takia Starks (Houston, Texas) had 10. A&M (8-1) took a 13-point lead into halftime, 37-25.
Jada Frazier came off the bench to score a team-high 19 points for the Lady Privateers (5-4). A three-pointer by teammate Candice McGee cut the lead to 10 points in the second half, 38-28, but UNO never got closer as A&M stretched its command into double figures.
For the game, the Aggie defense held the Lady Privateers to an opponent season low 27.7 (13-of-47) shooting from the floor, while A&M shot 41.7 percent. The Aggies also dished out a combined 17 assists, nine blocks and 10 steals.
A&M will take a six-day break between games to focus on final exams prior to playing host to No. 14 Auburn (9-0) to close out a three-game homestand on Saturday, Dec. 15 at 7 p.m.
Postgame Notes?...For the fifth time this season, A&M used the starting lineup of A?™Quonesia Franklin, Takia Starks, Danielle Gant, Ashlaa Horton and La Toya Micheaux (4-1)?...Gant recorded her eighth career double-double with a career-high 28 points and a season-high 14 rebounds against New Orleans?...Sophomore Damitria Buchanan scored a season-high eight points to go along with five rebounds and a career-high tying three blocked shots?...The A&M defense held UNO to an opponent season low 27.7 field-goal shooting percentage...The Aggies saw their second-largest crowd of the season with 2,704 fans in attendance at Reed Arena?...For the fourth-straight game, A&M shot better than 40 percent (41.7) from the floor?...UNO was the eighth opponent this season to turn the ball over 20-or-more times in a contest (24) which resulted in 22 A&M points?...Freshman Sydney Colson dished out a career-high six of the team?™s 17 assists in the ballgame?...Starks extended her double-digit scoring streak to 15 consecutive games with 10 points versus UNO and is just three points shy of reaching 1,000 career points.
POSTGAME QUOTES
TEXAS A&M HEAD COACH GARY BLAIR
On the flow of the game ?...
?There was no flow to the game and it was hard to get into a flow. A lot of it was because we were fouling too much and they were fouling too much. Both teams played hard. I thought New Orleans?™ guards were very good. Give (Jada) Frazier a lot of credit out there, she was playing well. I thought we were shooting pretty well in the second half. We wanted to be able to get as many kids in double figures minutes as we could and I thought we accomplished that tonight.?
On New Orleans and what A&M did on the defensive end ?...
?She?™s (UNO head coach Amy Champion) done a good job of rebuilding that program at UNO. We play so aggressive on defense that we take them deep into the shot clock. Our philosophy is, ?'let?™s make them hit the ESPN shot instead of the free throw.?™ I don?™t want the blocked shots. I want to be able to take pride in making them take a forced shot. I was really trying to work on our inside game tonight and I was able to rotate a lot of people in there. (Damitria) Buchanan came in there and did some good things as did (La Toya) Micheaux.?
JUNIOR GUARD/FORWARD DANIELLE GANT
On the team?™s shot selection ?...
?In the first half nothing was falling for us. They were switching a lot of things on the court. In the second half, Coach (Blair) just wanted us to get inside and I knew I could post up against the shorter defenders.?
On the flow of the game ?...
?In the first half, we didn?™t have a good flow at all. In the second half, we knew they were going to come out, because they are a great team. In the second half, Coach (Blair) just wanted us to penetrate and get easy baskets. Every game is going to be a big game for us. We have a target on our back and everyday, we just go out and try to play our best game.?
SENIOR FORWARD PATRICE READO
On Danielle Gant?™s double-double performance against UNO ?...
?Danielle just had a great game tonight. She was able to cut and get to the basket and was able to execute well and finish the shot. We just executed the plays well and that?™s how the assists came. Basically, the game plan was to take it inside the whole game. Danielle was the one who was finishing for us tonight and that?™s who the ball went to.?
On the flow of the game ?...
?It was tough game. Sometimes you have to play the ugly games to try to get the wins. We just tried to play hard and we tried to do the best we could with offensive and defensive rebounds and controlling them on the defensive end. We don?™t look past teams. We take every game like we would take every conference game by coming out and playing hard every night.?
NEW ORLEANS HEAD COACH AMY CHAMPION
On the game ?...
?The first half was good for us. We came and played close and competed. Rebounds stayed in tack. When you play a top team, the second half is always harder. I stressed the importance of the first five minutes and the last five minutes of the game. In the second half, they (Texas A&M) came out hungry which comes with a more experienced team. They came out and did well.?
