March 6, 2009
Baylor Game Notes in PDF Format 
#10/8 TEXAS A&M (23-5, 11-4) vs. #5/6 BAYLOR (23-5, 11-4)
Game #29
March 7, 2009 • 7:30 p.m. (CT)
Ferrell Center (10,284)
at Waco, Texas
Television: None
Radio: Texas A&M Sports Network (KZNE 1150 AM)
Series History: Baylor Leads 40-35
Internet: Live Audio and Statistics available on www.AggieAthletics.com
GAME PREVIEW
Riding a five-game winning streak in Big 12 Conference play, the eighth-ranked Texas A&M women's basketball team (23-5, 11-4) will close out the regular season at fifth-ranked Baylor (23-5, 11-4) on Saturday, March 7 at the Ferrell Center in Waco, Texas. Tipoff between the Aggies and Lady Bears is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. (CT). Seeding for the upcoming Phillips 66 Big 12 Women's Basketball Championship on March 12-15 in Oklahoma City will be on the line as both teams are currently tied for second place behind league leader Oklahoma. A year ago, A&M went 16-of-18 in their historic run to the NCAA Elite Eight and has regained its title as the hottest team in the country once more. With one of the nation's top scoring defenses, the Aggies have held their last two opponents to under 50 points and have defeated three top 25 opponents in No. 21 Texas, No. 2 Oklahoma and No. 15 Kansas State in their current five-game stretch. They boast the second-best record among league schools versus ranked opponents this season at 8-3. Both teams are complete mirror images of each other and rank No. 1 and No. 2 respectively in the league in field goal percentage defense: A&M (35.7) and Baylor (35.8). The Aggies will have a quick two-day turnaround to prepare for BU after handing Oklahoma State a 79-49 loss on Thursday night. Saturday's contest will mark the second time over the last three seasons in which A&M will play the Lady Bears on their Senior Night having last won in Waco (63-58) on Feb. 25, 2007. The Aggies have won three consecutive regular-season finales with the senior troop of Takia Starks, Danielle Gant and La Toya Micheaux looking to make it a fourth.
SCOUTING THE LADY BEARS
Baylor has won six of their last eight games of the season and recently suffered a 69-45 upset at unranked Kansas on March 4. The Lady Bears are without the services of junior post player Danielle Wilson who suffered a knee injury against rival Texas on Feb. 28. Wilson had played and started in all 27 games prior and averaged a team-leading 15.1 points and 9.6 rebounds per game. Junior forward Morghan Medlock has stepped into a starting role and knocked down a team-high 17 points off the bench in the A&M game on Jan. 21. BU's senior class made up of Rachel Allison, Jessica Morrow and Jhasmin Player, like the Aggies' heralded senior class, have also reached 100 career victories in their four-year careers to date and will be honored prior to the tip. The Lady Bears currently lead the league in rebounding averaging 44.5 boards per game.
BIG 12 SCENARIOS
The Aggies have earned a first-round bye in the league postseason tournament in Oklahoma City and could finish as high as No. 2 or as low as No. 4 in the final league standings depending on the outcome of Saturday's games between A&M and BU and Kansas and Iowa State. A win by the Aggies would earn them a No. 2 seed and Baylor a No. 3 seed. An ISU win and an A&M loss would give the Cyclones a No. 3 seed and the Aggies a No. 4 seed due to tiebreaker procedures. A loss by Iowa State to Kansas (win or lose to Baylor) would give the Aggies a No. 3 seed.
PROBABLE STARTING LINEUPS
TEXAS A&M
No. Name (2008-09 Stats)
#51 Sydney Colson, G, 5-8, So. (6.2 ppg, 3.0 apg)
#3 Takia Starks, G, 5-8, Sr. (15.9 ppg, 4.3 rpg)
#22 Tanisha Smith, G/F, 6-0, Jr. (9.4 ppg, 3.5 rpg)
#55 Danielle Gant, G/F, 5-11, Sr. (13.2 ppg, 6.7 rpg)
#12 La Toya Micheaux, C, 6-3, Sr. (2.6 ppg, 6.6 rpg)
BAYLOR
No. Name (2008-09 Stats)
#21 Kelli Griffin, G, 5-8, So. (6.4 ppg, 3.4 apg)
#15 Jhasmin Player, G, 5-10, Sr. (10.4 ppg, 5.6 rpg)
#3 Jessica Morrow, F, 6-0, Sr. (10.8 ppg, 3.1 rpg)
#14 Rachel Allison, F, 6-1, Sr. (8.7 ppg, 5.6 rpg)
#55 Morghan Medlock, F, 6-2, Jr. (6.3 ppg, 4.5 rpg)
SERIES NOTES
Baylor holds a five-game advantage in the all-time series with a 40-35 lead against Texas A&M since the 1974-75 season. The Aggies have won three out of the last five meetings between the two Big 12 South rivals dating back to a 60-52 (+8) road win on Jan. 13, 2007 in Waco, Texas, to a 72-53 (+19) victory over then No. 8-ranked Baylor on March 1, 2008 in College Station which is the Aggies' second largest margin of victory over a ranked opponent in school history. The Lady Bears have posted a 21-6 record over the Aggies in Big 12 competition. A&M has only won on 13 all-time occasions on the road in Waco including twice since the league's inception in 1999-2000 and 2006-07.
BAYLOR PLAYBACK
No. 7 Texas A&M went down-to-the-wire with No. 4 Baylor in a hotly-contested showdown which resulted in a 64-61 victory for the visiting Lady Bears before a crowd of 5,234 at Reed Arena on Jan. 21. Takia Starks dribbled up the court and took the last shot past the top of the key to possibly send the game into overtime, but BU would escape with its first win in College Station in close to three years in the Battle of the Brazos series. Starks ended the night with 18 points and four rebounds in 36 minutes of action versus the Lady Bears. There were 19 lead changes in the ballgame and 17 ties. Tanisha Smith came up big for the Aggies all night with a career-and game-high 19 points and six rebounds including six of the team's first eight points of the game where A&M capitalized on Baylor's early mistakes on the court. The Aggie defense forced the Lady Bears into 20 turnovers for the game. Both teams shot close to 50 percent in a fast-paced first half, but BU took a 37-34 advantage into halftime on a three-pointer by Jessica Morrow who led the Lady Bears with 15 points. Wilson, who had the game-winning play, recorded a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds, while Jhasmin Player added 12.
AGGIE SIDEBARS
• The state 5A girls basketball championship game to be played on Saturday afternoon at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin will serve as a prelude to the Texas A&M and Baylor showdown in Waco. Former A&M head coach Candi Harvey and A&M's all-time leading scorer and assists leader Lisa Branch will be prepping Mansfield Timberview High School for a matchup against Waco Midway High School, a team in which Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey's daughter plays on. Harvey, who coached the Aggies from 1994-98, has led Timberview to its first-ever state tournament appearance since starting up the program in 2004-05. Five years ago, she enlisted the services of her former Aggie point guard Branch as an assistant coach.
• Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair is an even 9-9 all-time versus Baylor in his 24 years as a Division I head coach. As an assistant coach to current Baylor assistant coach Leon Barmore at Louisiana Tech from 1980-85, their star point guard was Kim Mulkey who led the Lady Techsters to back-to-back national championship titles in 1981 (AIAW) and 1982 (NCAA).
• Texas A&M's Takia Starks has known Baylor seniors Jhasmin Player and Jessica Morrow since their high school and AAU basketball days growing up in the Houston Area. Starks played at Westfield High School and was the state Gatorade Player of the Year in 2005, while Player was the state 4A Player of the Year at Bay City High School and Morrow the state 5A Player of the Year at Humble High School.
OKLAHOMA STATE RECAP
Texas A&M 79, Oklahoma State 49
• For the 11th time this season, Texas A&M used the starting five of Takia Starks, Danielle Gant and La Toya Micheaux (9-2).
• Prior to the game, the Aggies honored four graduating seniors in Takia Starks (Houston, Texas), Danielle Gant (Oklahoma City, Okla.), La Toya Micheaux (Missouri City, Texas) and Kiley Finstad (Cranfills Gap, Texas) as well as three team managers in J.D. Wood (Onalaska, Texas), Taylor Cooley (Harker Heights, Texas) and Ryan Lindsey (Lubbock, Texas).
• Texas A&M had 7,075 fans in attendance to mark its seventh-largest crowd in school history. It was the sixth-best crowd overall for a non-men's and women's doubleheader game. Of the total, a school-record 2,091 students including members of Texas A&M's Corps of Cadets were in attendance to cheer on the Aggies against the Cowgirls.
• Takia Starks continues on a 15-game double-digit scoring streak through Big 12 Conference play and put up 18 in her final home game at Reed Arena.
• The 2009 Senior Class claimed its 100th win in their four-year careers in Aggieland versus OSU. They won an unprecedented 57 of their 62 home games since their freshman campaign in 2005-06.
• Junior Tanisha Smith has now dished out a career-high seven assists in her last two ballgames against Oklahoma State and Kansas State. She has gone 14-to-1 for an assist-to-turnover ratio of 14.0 versus the Cowgirls and Wildcats combined. Smith also turned in her 12th double-digit game of the season.
• The Aggies closed out the regular season at home with a 13-1 mark. It was only the third time in school history to have one loss or less on their home court next to a 14-1 mark in 1993-94 and an undefeated 16-0 mark in 2006-07.
• Texas A&M knocked down the three ball a season-high nine times against Oklahoma State including five first-half three-pointers.
• The Aggie defense held OSU to a season-low 49 points which was also the third-lowest output by the Cowgirls in the all-time series. Their previous season-low was 51 at Arkansas-Little Rock on Dec. 6. A&M also limited the nation's second-leading scorer Andrea Riley (23.9 ppg) to 15 points in the ballgame.
• A&M has held its last two opponents to under 50 points including a 45-point output by Kansas State on March 1.
AGGIE NOTABLE QUOTABLES
"Playing Baylor on Saturday is very similar to what you do in the Big 12 Tournament or in the NCAA Tournament. You play every other day. I would rather play the game on Saturday than Sunday, because that would give us an extra day of rest that we need before the Big 12 Tournament. It will be Senior Day in Waco. (Jessica) Morrow, (Jhasmin) Player and (Rachel) Allison are just like (La Toya) Micheaux, (Takia) Starks and (Danielle) Gant and what they have meant to their program. Our three have had a special three years of playing against their three seniors. It's going to be a classic. We've lost some heartbreakers there, but we've also won one there too in the last four years. We are looking forward to going to Waco this weekend." - Texas A&M Head Coach Gary Blair on Baylor and the quick turnaround between games
"We've always played well against Baylor. They are kind of a carbon copy of us. They play hard, play good defense and have the same kind of players that we have on our team. It's fun when we play them. The plays will be going and it's just two teams going hard at each other. I love to play against Baylor, Texas and OU, because it's a true challenge. When we go to Waco, it will be a business trip for us. We have to take care of business." - Senior Center La Toya Micheaux on Baylor
"You love it if you can steal a win at Baylor. It's a tough place to play and they have great fans. We anticipate a big crowd there. It's always a great game. We play hard and sometimes all of the plays go out the window. Whoever scores the most runs wins and whoever makes the most mistakes is going to lose, that's just how it goes. We will be wrapping up a great season, so I would love to get that win. It would be a big momentum builder for us going into the Big 12 Tournament. We are currently playing for second, when we were picked fifth (in the preseason coaches poll). That alone is a great accomplishment." - Senior All-America candidate Takia Starks on closing out the regular season at Baylor
"First, we would like to win these next two games (against Oklahoma State and Baylor) and go win the Big 12 Championship in Oklahoma City. That is our main focus right now. Not only that, we want to go further then we did last year (in the NCAA Elite Eight). If we go further than we did last year, then we have improved as a team." - Senior All-America candidate Danielle Gant on what's next after three-straight wins over top 25 opponents
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 the Ferrell Center alongside color analyst Tap Bentz on KZNE 1150 AM. A live audio feed will also be available on www.AggieAthletics.com.