Dec. 29, 2008
New Mexico Game Notes in PDF Format 
#3 TEXAS A&M (10-0) vs. #25 NEW MEXICO (11-1)
Game #11
December 30, 2008 • 7:00 p.m. (CT)
Reed Arena (12,989)
at College Station, Texas
Television: None
Radio: Texas A&M Sports Network (KZNE 1150 AM)
Series History: First Meeting
Internet: Live Video and Statistics available on www.AggieAthletics.com
GAME PREVIEW
The third-ranked Texas A&M women's basketball team looks to close out a record-setting year undefeated, but will be matched in a first-time meeting with No. 25 New Mexico, a team making its first appearance in the national polls since January of 2007 this week. Tipoff between the Aggies and Lobos is slated for Tuesday, Dec. 30 at 7 p.m. (CT) at Reed Arena. Both programs are off to their best starts in school history with A&M (10-0) undefeated on the season and UNM (11-1) just one game short of perfection. Tuesday's contest will mark the Aggies' first since a nine-day layoff between games over the holiday break and second-straight against a top 25 opponent after topping then No. 24/25-ranked TCU (64-50) on Dec. 21. Looking back, the year 2008 has been a very prosperous one for A&M with the program's first-ever Big 12 Conference postseason title in March, its first-ever appearance in the NCAA Elite Eight in April, its program-best No. 3 national ranking in December and its current school-record 10-0 start. New Mexico will challenge A&M's pursuit to ring in the New Year with more history in the making as the Lobos enter the friendly confines of Reed Arena on an eight-game winning streak. The Aggies, however, have defended their home court well this season with a 4-0 mark that has extended their win streak over non-conference opponents to 36 dating back to January of 2004.
GAME PROMOTIONS
Half-Price Holiday Hoops continues with the New Mexico game on Dec. 30 through the Texas A&M men's and women's basketball doubleheader with McNeese State and George Washington on Jan. 3. Tickets are available for purchase starting as low as $2.50 by calling 1-888-99-AGGIE, online at www.12thmanfoundation.com, or in person at the 12th Man Foundation Ticket Center's Kyle Field or Reed Arena locations. Former A&M standouts A'Quonesia Franklin and Morenike Atunrase will be in town to sign autographs after the game. Both Aggies were selected in the 2008 WNBA Draft by the Sacramento Monarchs and the San Antonio Silver Stars respectively and reached the WNBA Playoffs in just their rookie campaigns. Franklin is currently playing overseas in Sweden with the Solna Vikings and Atunrase in Turkey with Burhaniye Belediyesi in the off-season.
SCOUTING NEW MEXICO
New Mexico has been one of the most consistent women's basketball programs over the last decade drawing home crowds in excess of the 18,018 capacity of its home venue the Pit, vying for the Mountain West Conference title year-in and year-out and making seven consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances under 14-year head coach Don Flanagan. UNM is off to a program-best 11-1 start with one loss to then-No. 8 Stanford (84-46) on Nov. 20 in Palo Alto, Calif. The Lobos have played all but two of their 12 overall games at home where they are an undefeated 10-0 with notable wins over UTEP (66-43) on Dec. 16 and Big 12 South rival Texas Tech (63-54) on Dec. 13. The Lobos picked up their first road victory of the season with a 78-64 rout of in-state rival New Mexico State on Dec. 20 prior to the Christmas holiday break. They are 2-0 this season against Big 12 opponents including a 62-51 win over Nebraska in the championship game of the home-hosted Holiday Inn & Suites Express Midtown Thanksgiving Tournament on Nov. 29 in Albuquerque.
PROBABLE STARTING LINEUPS
TEXAS A&M
No. Name (2008-09 Stats)
#51 Sydney Colson, G, 5-8, So. (5.6 ppg, 4.2 apg)
#3 Takia Starks, G, 5-8, Sr. (13.7 ppg, 4.1 rpg)
#55 Danielle Gant, G/F, 5-11, Sr. (12.3 ppg, 7.0 rpg)
#21 Adaora Elonu, F, 6-1, Fr. (7.8 ppg, 5.8 rpg)
#12 La Toya Micheaux, C, 6-3, Sr. (4.2 ppg, 6.7 rpg)
NEW MEXICO
No. Name (2008-09 Stats)
#10 Amy Beggin, G, 5-6, Jr. (15.8 ppg, 4.1 apg)
#15 Amanda Adamson, G, 6-0, Sr. (9.1 ppg, 7.1 rpg)
#3 Eileen Weissmann, G, 6-0, Jr. (6.0 ppg, 3.5 rpg)
#32 Amanda Best, G, 6-0, So. (5.3 ppg, 5.2 rpg)
#44 Angela Hartill, C, 6-3, Sr. (13.0 ppg, 4.9 rpg)
AGAINST THE MWC
Texas A&M is 35-9 (.795) all-time against schools hailing from the Mountain West Conference including TCU (29-3), Colorado State (1-0), San Diego State (2-0), UNLV (2-5) and Wyoming (1-1). Aside from a first-time meeting with New Mexico, the Aggies have never faced MWC schools Air Force, BYU and Utah.
AGGIE SIDEBARS
• One of the greatest players in New Mexico girls' basketball history played for Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair from 1997-2000 at the University of Arkansas. Karyn Karlin, a native of Fruitland, N.M. and one of the top recruits in the country, started her basketball success by leading Kirkland Central High School to four consecutive 3A New Mexico state championships. The three-time state high school player of the year was named Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Year in 1997 and led the Lady Razorbacks to the 1998 NCAA Final Four. The then ninth-seeded Lady Razorbacks came out of the West Region to become the lowest-seeded women's basketball team to ever qualify for the Final Four.
• Coach Blair is 0-1 all-time versus New Mexico. Arkansas played UNM in Karyn Karlin's senior year with the Lobos pulling off a 71-66 upset at The Pit on Dec. 21, 1999. A&M will play a home-and-home series with the Lobos and will travel to the legendary Pit, tabbed one of the Top 20 Sporting Venues of the 20th Century by Sports Illustrated, during the 2009-10 season.
• Blair and New Mexico head coach Don Flanagan both started off their coaching careers with success on the high school level. Blair led South Oak Cliff High School in Dallas to three state 4A titles and a 239-18 record (.930) from 1973-80, while Flanagan led Eldorado High School in Albuquerque to nine undefeated seasons and an impressive 401-13 record (.969) prior to his appointment at UNM in 1995.
• Former Texas A&M men's tennis coach Tim Cass (1997-2006) currently serves as senior associate athletics director at his alma mater, New Mexico. Cass led the Aggies to three Big 12 Conference postseason tennis titles in 1998, 2000 and 2001 and to the NCAA Sweet 16 during six of his last seven seasons in Aggieland. He helped develop the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center which is one of the premier tennis facilities in the country and located adjacent to Reed Arena on the A&M campus.
TCU RECAP
Texas A&M 64, TCU 50
• For the sixth time this season, Texas A&M used the starting five of Takia Starks, Danielle Gant, La Toya Micheaux (6-0).
• With the victory, A&M improved to 2-0 against top 25 competition this season and 29-3 overall in the all-time series with TCU. The Lady Frogs have yet to beat A&M on its home court as the Aggies improved their home record versus the Lady Frogs to an unblemished 16-0.
• The Aggies continue their school-record 10-0 start to the season which marked the first time in Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair's 24-year coaching career to lead a Division I program to a perfect 10-0 record and the second time a team under Blair has gone into the Christmas holiday break unbeaten. He previously led No. 11 Stephen F. Austin to a 9-0 start to the 1988-89 season with a 74-55 win over Kansas on Jan. 4, 1989, and an 8-0 record leading into the holiday break.
• A&M had a season-high crowd of 5,395 in attendance at Reed Arena. It marked the 12th largest crowd in school history and third-largest crowd to attend a non-conference regular-season home game next to doubleheaders with the A&M men's basketball team versus Pepperdine (6,443) on Nov. 10, 2006 and Western Illinois (6,389) on Jan. 2, 2007.
• Takia Starks turned in her 19th career 20-point game with a season-high tying 21 against TCU. She turned in her highest-scoring first half this season with 18 points versus the Lady Frogs. Her previous high was 14 first-half points against SMU on Dec. 7. Starks has now made 622 field goals during her impressive four-year career and is six away from surpassing former A&M standout Lisa Langston (627), who played for the Aggies from 1982-86, for No. 1 on the career charts for field goals made (627). She currently ranks third all-time in career scoring with 1,560 points to date.
• For the second-straight contest and fourth time this year, La Toya Micheaux led the team in the rebounding column with 14 boards, which tied a career best for the senior center. She moved into sixth all-time in career rebounds (658) surpassing former A&M standout Trigg Crawford (653) who played from 1977-81.
• Adaora Elonu turned in her fourth game in double figures this season with 10 points on 5-of-8 shooting against TCU.
• The Aggie defense forced TCU, a team which rarely turns over the ball and was ranked No. 6 nationally with a 12.4 average, into a season-high 23 miscues for the game including 13 in the first half alone.
• A&M also held TCU to its lowest first-half production of the season (21 points) which was one fewer than its 22 first-half points versus Boston College on Nov. 27 in Cancun, Mexico.
• For the first time in school history, A&M has now defeated two top 25 non-conference opponents in regular-season action.
AGGIE NOTABLE QUOTABLES
"New Mexico has beaten some good teams. They are well coached and are extremely disciplined in running their offense. They have some pretty good offensive weapons. We will have to take them out of their comfort zone. It will be a similar matchup like TCU. Amy Beggin can shoot the ball and her stats are almost identical to the TCU player from Iceland (Helen Sverrisdottir). She is a complete player. New Mexico was picked to finish fourth in their league and we were picked fifth in ours. We are 10-0 and they are 11-1 which shows how good both of our leagues are. The Mountain West is the best non-BCS conference in the country. They have six teams who have a chance to go to the NCAA Tournament. New Mexico always ranks among the top 5 in the country in attendance, so they are used to playing in front of large crowds. I hope we can draw the same crowd as we did against TCU. This game will go down to the wire and we hope our fans can come out and support us." - Texas A&M Head Coach Gary Blair on New Mexico and back-to-back Mountain West Conference opponents
"We have three monster games coming up, before we go to Missouri to open up Big 12 Conference play (on Jan. 10). We can't lose sight of any one of them. You are setting yourself up for an NCAA run, if you can play these last three games and get better by playing them. Whether we win all three or not, we want to get better each ballgame." - Coach Blair on A&M's final non-conference stretch against 2008 NCAA Tournament participants New Mexico, George Washington and Florida State
"They are like Iowa State and play a sagging defense inside the arc. They are a very smart team with a lot of tall guards. They like to run a lot of motion and a lot of sets. The next three ballgames are going to prepare us with Big 12 play about to start. We are trying to take it one game at a time, but still win all three games at the same time. Coach (Blair) believed in us. He has given us harder games this year and I think this challenge was good for us." - Senior All-America candidate Danielle Gant on New Mexico and A&M's tough non-conference schedule
"I actually watched them play last year in the NCAA Tournament and I thought they were a pretty good team. They have a couple of different players in their lineup this year, but are a great team, have great height and great shooters. We have really prepared for them this week. We now they might play us zone and lately, we have been playing zone pretty well inside and outside which is a plus for us. I am really excited about the game and hopefully, we can keep our streak going." - Senior All-America candidate Takia Starks on New Mexico
"I've been trying to work hard and practice like I normally do. It could have been all of the food I ate over the break (laughs). I am definitely trying to pick it up, before going into conference play. It's my last year. I don't want to waste any practices or any days and put it all out there. Life is pretty good right now. I am stress free about school and I was able to spend time with my family over the holidays. I love my teammates. We are 10-0 with the best start in school history. Everything is going our way right now." - Starks on her improvement over the last couple of games and over the holiday break
AGGIES ON THE RADIO
All Texas A&M women's basketball games can be heard via a radio broadcast on the Texas A&M Sports Network. Play-by-play announcer Mike Wright will call the action live from Reed Arena alongside color analyst Tap Bentz on KZNE 1150 AM. A live audio feed will also be available on www.AggieAthletics.com.
A LOOK AT THE TOP 25
Texas A&M remained at No. 3 nationally for the second-straight week in the latest Associated Press Top 25 Poll released on Monday. New Mexico entered this week's rankings at No. 25 in the AP Poll and will be the third top 25 opponent the Aggies will face this season next to a 56-50 win over No. 23 Pitt on Nov. 16 and a 64-50 victory over No. 24 TCU on Dec. 21. Once again, A&M is one of four teams from the Big 12 Conference to be ranked in the AP Top 10 for the fifth consecutive week with No. 4 Texas (11-0), No. 5 Oklahoma (9-2) and No. 7 Baylor (11-1).
ASSOCIATED PRESS TOP 25 POLL
1. Connecticut (11-0)
2. North Carolina (13-0)
3. Texas A&M (10-0)
4. Texas (11-0)
5. Oklahoma (9-2)
6. Duke (10-1)
7. Baylor (11-1)
8. Tennessee (9-2)
9. Auburn (12-0)
10. Louisville (11-1)
11. Stanford (9-3)
12. Notre Dame (10-1)
13. California (8-2)
14. Maryland (9-2)
15. Rutgers (7-2)
16. Virginia (10-2)
17. Ohio State (10-2)
18. Florida (11-1)
19. Pittsburgh (9-2)
20. Vanderbilt (11-2)
21. Oklahoma State (9-2)
22. Kansas State (11-0)
23. Georgia Tech (10-2)
24. South Dakota State (12-1)
25. New Mexico (11-1)