Texas A&M
23-7, 11-5
Oklahoma
21-7, 11-5
Texas A&M 73, OU 59
Mar 06, 2008 | Women's Basketball
March 06, 2008
Junior Danielle Gant (Oklahoma City, Okla.) celebrated her 21st birthday by scoring 21 points and leading No. 17 Texas A&M to its sixth-straight win in Big 12 Conference play.
Gant also had 12 rebounds to lead the Aggies to a 73-59 victory over 11th-ranked Oklahoma on Thursday night, their third win in a row over a top 25 team. A&M (23-7, 11-5) finished the regular season with wins in 10 of its last 11 games after starting conference play 1-4. With the win, the Aggies clinched the fourth seed in the upcoming Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship and a first-round bye. Oklahoma is the fifth seed and must play in the first round.
The Aggies led this one from start to finish and maintained a double-digit lead through most of the game. Texas A&M had a seven point lead at halftime and opened the second half with a 12-3 run to take a 45-29 lead with about 16 minutes left. Gant had two straight jump shots to cap that run. The Aggies put the game completely out of reach with a 17-7 run after that to stretch the lead to 62-36 with about five minutes left.
Oklahoma (21-7, 11-5) didn?™t score a basket for an almost 7 1/2 minute span in the second half. The drought stretched from 13:01 until Jenna Plumley?™s jump shot with 5:32 left. The Sooners finished the game with a 23-11 run, but their deficit was too much to overcome.
The Aggies beat No. 8 Baylor 72-53 on Saturday and got a 63-57 win over then-No. 17 Oklahoma State two games ago. Their last loss came in a 68-56 defeat at Oklahoma on Feb. 12.
Courtney Paris?™ streak of 89 consecutive games with a double-double came dangerously close to being broken on Thursday night when had 27 points and 11 rebounds. She had just one rebound at halftime and didn?™t get her 10th until there was just 1:21 left.
The last time she didn?™t record a double-double was Dec. 5, 2005. Her streak is the best in collegiate history and outdid Tim Duncan?™s record of 87 at Wake Forest. She has 94 double-doubles in 97 career games.
Texas A&M led by one point before going on a 10-0 run to take a 16-5 lead with about 14 minutes left in the first half. Oklahoma then scored nine of the next 11 points to cut the lead to 18-14 midway through the half.
The Sooners had cut he lead to three points before Texas A&M went on an 11-2 run to push its lead to 31-19 about four minutes before halftime. The Aggies got nine points from junior Takia Starks (Houston, Texas) in that span.
Starks added 19 points and senior Morenike Atunrase (Shreveport, La.) had 10 for Texas A&M. Oklahoma outscored A&M 7-2 the rest of the half to get within 33-26 at halftime.
A&M will face the winner of fifth-seeded Oklahoma and 12th-seeded Missouri (9-20, 2-14) in second-round action of the Big 12 Championship on Wednesday, March 12 at 2:30 p.m. The postseason conference tournament runs from March 11-13 & 15 at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City.
Postgame Notes?...For the first time this season, A&M used the starting lineup of A?™Quonesia Franklin, Morenike Atunrase, Danielle Gant, Patrice Reado and La Toya Micheaux (1-0)?...Gant exploded with 14 of her team-high 21 points in the first half of play?...Ironically, she registered her 12th 20-point game of her career on her 21st birthday?...Gant also turned in her 12th career double-double with a team-high 12 rebounds?...With the victory, the Aggies claimed only their 11th win in the 35-game all-time series with Oklahoma?...They have won three of the last four meetings between the two schools?...A&M won the battle of the boards, 48-42, to mark its 22nd time of the season to outrebound its opponent?...It was the second-most rebounds made in a single game this year?...The Aggies earned the No. 4 seed in the Big 12 Championship for the third-straight season and third time in league history?...It also marked the program?™s third-straight year to post more than 11 victories in league regular-season play with an 11-5 record after a 1-4 Big 12 start?...A&M?™s 11 victories tied for the second-most Big 12 wins in school history?...A&M tied Oklahoma and Oklahoma State for third-place in the final league standings?...A&M saw its third-largest crowd of the season on Senior Day with 5,043 fans in attendance at Reed Arena?...The Aggies?™ 14-point margin of victory over OU was its largest in the Big 12 era?...Of its five wins versus the Sooners in Big 12 play, it was the largest margin of victory with all other contests won by 10 points or less?...A&M?™s inside game held OU All-American center Courtney Paris to just two of her team-high 11 rebounds in the first half of play which was five boards below her nation-leading 15.1 rebounds per game?...A&M honored seniors A?™Quonesia Franklin, Morenike Atunrase, Patrice Reado, LaToya Gulley and Katy Pounds prior to tipoff with the Sooners?...The 2008 Senior Class has led the Aggies to 87 overall victories and 39 league victories since their freshman campaign in 2004-05?...A&M previously compiled just 44 overall wins and 13 league wins in the four-year span prior to the seniors?™ arrival on campus?...The Aggies scored 23 points off of 19 turnovers by OU?...The Aggies have now scored 70-or-more points in a ballgame for the 10th time this season which tied their third-highest single game point total (73) of the season...For the fourth-straight contest, the A&M defense held their opponent to either a season low or their second fewest points of the season?...OU was held to 59 overall points which was nine fewer than its season low of 50 in a loss to Texas on March 2?...A&M led the entire ballgame.
POSTGAME QUOTES
TEXAS A&M HEAD COACH GARY BLAIR
On the game and OU ?...
?Twenty-one points on (Danielle) Gant?™s 21st birthday, there?™s your headline. It looks like we will more than likely see OU again. I thought one of the huge keys to the game is what we did with (Courtney) Paris on the boards. She got eight rebounds in the last six minutes of the game mainly off of our missed frees throws. We weren?™t trying to get her from keeping her from getting a double-double. That was the furthest thing from our mind. We wanted her to work for everything and she was having to do it. (La Toya) Micheaux and (Damitria) Buchanan were a doing an excellent job out there. We were forcing the turnovers early in the game and then we started turning the ball over to them. We have to handle the ball better than we did tonight. Morenike (Atunrase) in the second half was very good. She did a very good job of putting the ball on the floor and going to the hole. I thought we did a good job of defending (Jenna) Plumley overall. That kid can play. She?™s a good ball player.?
On the team?™s defense and shot selection ?...
?It was a good solid game. Our shot selection was excellent in the first half. We were shooting mid-range shots, because we could not get into the hole because of the Paris twins. I thought we did a good job particularly on Ashley Paris and Amanda Thompson. It was a very good defensive effort by our team. I wasn?™t really pleased with how the game ended. We let them right back into the ballgame with our inability to hit free throws and our turnovers. We will work on that and I think we were really excited to go to Kansas City. We just want to do better than we have done the last couple of years at the Big 12 Tournament.?
On A&M beating OU, Baylor and Oklahoma in their final three-game stretch ?...
?All three of those teams beat us this year and they kept us from playing for a conference championship. It was a little bit of a payback tour, because we respect all three of those programs. We are a good hardworking basketball team. Are we the hottest team right now? Yes, we are, but we have to go out and prove it again. This really helped our NCAA Tournament seed after beating two top 10 teams in the last week.?
TEXAS A&M SENIOR GUARD/FORWARD MORENIKE ATUNRASE
On the game ?...
?It was a great win for us. I don?™t think about it as our last home game, because we have a lot of games ahead of us. This win has given us momentum going into the tournament and we just need to go out and handle our business.?
TEXAS A&M JUNIOR GUARD/FORWARD DANIELLE GANT
On the difference in the first half and playing against Oklahoma ?...
?I think it was because of our defense and picking up the ball and not letting them lob it into Ashley or Courtney Paris. It?™s just a regular game to me. Of course, I?™m from Oklahoma and it?™s always a great battle. It was a great win for us and our team.?
OKLAHOMA HEAD COACH SHERRI COALE
On the game and A&M?™s turnaround ?...
?I was really proud of our team particularly down the stretch. I thought we really fought and made it respectable at the end. We scratched and clawed our way back in and I was pleased with that. I thought we played pretty hard and our effort was pretty good. We didn?™t do a great job on the boards. Obviously, there were way too many offensive boards by A&M. But, we didn?™t throw the ball all over the gym like we have done against them before and we kept that in check. We just needed to make some shots. They do a great job of pressuring the basketball and a great job of denying the passing lanes. It was a very physical game and it was hard to get loose. I think (Danielle) Gant has improved all season long. They are just playing with experience and swagger and all those things that a senior-laden team does at this time of year. (Morenike) Atunrase looked a little bit healthier than she has all season which has been a big difference as well.?
On moving forward and looking ahead to the Big 12 Championship ?...
?The slate?™s clean. It?™s a breath of fresh of air and now you have an opportunity, because everyone starts at square one. I think we understand, because we?™ve gone all the way through it before by playing four games in a row. There is a lot of opportunity and a lot of things left to play for.?
OKLAHOMA JUNIOR CENTER COURTNEY PARIS
On heading into the Big 12 Tournament ?...
?Like Coach (Coale) said, it?™s a clean slate. Our teams have done it before by coming back and winning it. We are going to start over and give it our best try. That?™s all you can do. We just gotta get the job done. That?™s what happened tonight. We just didn?™t get the job done.?
OKLAHOMA SOPHOMORE GUARD JENNA PLUMLEY
On the game ?...
?We just needed to come out and play like it was our last. We showed spurts of playing hard, but it?™s about finding it for 40 minutes and playing hard.?
