March 13, 2009
Big 12 Semifinals Game Notes in PDF Format 
#4 TEXAS A&M (24-6) vs. #1 OKLAHOMA (28-3)
Game #31
Phillips 66 Big 12 Women's Basketball Championship Semifinals
March 14, 2009 • Noon (CT)
Cox Convention Center (13,297)
at Oklahoma City, Okla.
Television: Fox Sports Net
Radio: Texas A&M Sports Network (KZNE 1150 AM)
Series History: Oklahoma Leads 25-12
Internet: Live statistics available on www.Big12Sports.com
GAME PREVIEW
A rematch with top-seeded and third-ranked Oklahoma (28-3) looms ahead for the fourth-seeded and ninth-ranked Texas A&M women's basketball team (24-6) in the first of two Phillips 66 Big 12 Conference Championship semifinal games on Saturday, March 14 at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City. Tipoff between the Aggies and Sooners is scheduled for noon (CT) in what will most likely be a heavily Crimson-favored atmosphere. The A&M and OU series has developed into a heated rivalry between two current top 10 teams who have laid claim to a combined six Big 12 trophies since 2006 and the last three consecutive postseason tournament titles. The Aggies are currently on a four-game winning streak in postseason play extending from last year's title run in Kansas City. They will look to continue their winning ways after getting past fifth-seeded Kansas State (65-63) in quarterfinal-action on Friday. The Sooners probably won't forget what happened nearly three weeks ago as A&M ended their 20-game win streak in a 57-56 thriller on Feb. 23 in College Station. The Aggies are one of only three schools this season to hand OU a loss next to No. 1 Connecticut on Nov. 30 and No. 3 North Carolina on Nov. 23. The winner of Saturday's semifinal will go on to face either second-seeded Baylor (25-5) or third-seeded Iowa State (24-7) in the championship game to be played on Sunday, March 15 at 12:30 p.m. (CT). All games to be televised on Fox Sports Net.
ON THE TUBE
The Texas A&M and Oklahoma semifinal game will be showcased nationally on Fox Sports Net. Play-by-play announcer Kevin Eschenfelder, color analyst Debbie Antonelli and sideline reporter Brenda VanLengen will call the action live from the Cox Convention Center. The broadcast will be carried live on Fox Sports Arizona, Fox Sports Detroit (Plus), Fox Sports Midwest, FSN Northwest, FSN Rocky Mountain, Fox Sports South, Fox Sports Southwest, Fox Sports Houston, Fox Sports West, Fox Sports Wisconsin, Comcast Bay Area, Comcast Chicago, Comcast Mid Atlantic and Sun Sports (Orlando Magic). Delayed broadcasts will be aired on Fox Sports Florida (Non Florida Panthers), Fox Sports North, FSN Pittsburgh, Comcast New England and Comcast Philadelphia.
ABOUT OKLAHOMA
Oklahoma picked up its fourth-straight win with a 76-59 rout of eighth-seeded Kansas in the Big 12 Quarterfinals on Saturday. Senior All-American Courtney Paris racked up another healthy double-double with 27 points and 14 rebounds in the winning effort against the Jayhawks. The Sooners improved to 18-8 all-time in Big 12 Championship games and finished the regular season at 15-1. Big 12 Freshman of the Year Whitney Hand returned to the OU lineup after missing four games at the end of the season (including the A&M loss) recovering from surgery on a dislocated left index finger.
PROBABLE STARTING LINEUPS
TEXAS A&M
No. Name (2008-09 Stats)
#51 Sydney Colson, G, 5-8, So. (6.3 ppg, 2.9 apg)
#3 Takia Starks, G, 5-8, Sr. (15.5 ppg, 4.1 rpg)
#22 Tanisha Smith, G/F, 6-0, Jr. (9.6 ppg, 3.6 rpg)
#55 Danielle Gant, G/F, 5-11, Sr. (13.6 ppg, 7.1 rpg)
#12 La Toya Micheaux, C, 6-3, Sr. (2.5 ppg, 6.5 rpg)
OKLAHOMA
No. Name (2008-09 Stats)
#13 Danielle Robinson, G, 5-9, So. (12.8 ppg, 5.9 apg)
#25 Whitney Hand, G, 6-1, Fr. (8.8 ppg, 2.5 rpg)
#21 Amanda Thompson, F, 6-0, Jr. (7.5 ppg, 5.1 rpg)
#5 Ashley Paris, F, 6-3, Sr. (12.8 ppg, 9.5 rpg)
#3 Courtney Paris, C, 6-4, Sr. (16.5 ppg, 13.7 rpg)
INSIDE THE SERIES
Oklahoma may lead 25-12 in the all-time series versus Texas A&M, but the Aggies have won four out of the last six meetings with the Sooners. Nine of A&M's 12 overall victories in the all-time series have been won on its home court including a memorable 57-56 victory over the Sooners on Feb. 13 at Reed Arena in College Station. The Aggies are 0-2 versus OU in Big 12 Championship games including 60-47 first-round loss in the 2004 tournament in 2005 and an 86-65 first-round loss in the 2005 tournament in Kansas City.
LAST SIX GAMES IN SERIES
W, 54-52 (+2) on Jan. 27, 2007 in Norman
W, 78-68 (+10) on Feb. 10, 2007 in College Station
L, 56-68 (-12) on Feb. 12, 2008 in Norman
W, 73-59 (+14) on March 6, 2008 in College Station
L, 59-71 (-12) on Jan. 18, 2009 in Norman
W, 57-56 (+1) on Feb. 23, 2009 in College Station
ONE FOR AN ESPN CLASSIC REPLAY
Takia Starks hit a layup in the lane with six seconds left to lead No. 12 Texas A&M to a 57-56 win over second-ranked Oklahoma at Reed Arena on Feb. 23 in College Station. It was the highest-ranked team A&M has ever beaten. The Aggies trailed by one before Starks got the ball at the top of the key and drove into the lane for the winner. She also had a long jumper with two minutes left to get Texas A&M within striking distance. The majority of the crowd of 7,035 dashed to the court and jumped around wildly to celebrate with the Aggies. OU led by 14 points in the second half before A&M went on a run that gave the Aggies a seven-point lead with eight minutes left. The Sooners, who had a season-high 29 turnovers, scored 10 straight points to take a 56-53 lead with 3½ minutes remaining. It was Oklahoma's first loss since falling at No. 1 Connecticut on Nov. 30. Texas A&M got 18 points from Tanisha Smith and Starks finished with 12. Danielle Gant eight. The Sooners were led by Danielle Robinson's 17 points and Courtney Paris added 15 points and 11 rebounds. The Aggies used a 25-4 run to erase a 14-point deficit and take a 53-46 lead with about eight minutes left. The Sooners had six consecutive turnovers at the end of that span. Oklahoma didn't score for almost seven minutes during A&M's run, but broke the drought with a jump shot by Paris with about 7½ minutes remaining. The Sooners scored nine straight points to open the second half and stretch their lead to 42-28. Texas A&M took advantage of four turnovers by Oklahoma to score the next eight points and cut the lead to 42-36 with about 15 minutes left. Oklahoma led by a dozen after seven minutes as the Aggies made just two of their first 12 shots. Texas A&M then went on a 14-4 run to cut the lead to 20-18 about 6½ minutes before halftime. A four-point play by Starks highlighted that run. The Aggies tied it three times after that, but never took the lead. Oklahoma scored five straight points to end the half and led 33-28 at halftime.
GOING FOR 25
The Aggies will be looking for win No. 25 of the season against the Sooners. A&M has posted 25-or-more wins over the last two seasons including a school-record 29-8 mark in 2007-08 and a 25-7 mark in 2006-07. It would tie for the third-most wins in school history. Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair has guided nine overall teams at Stephen F. Austin (1985-93) and A&M (2003-Present) combined to 25-or-more win campaigns over the course of his 24-year head coaching career.
AGGIE TOURNAMENT TIDBITS
• Texas A&M has won the third-most Big 12 Championship games among all league schools over the last four years at 6-2. Only OU and Iowa State have a more impressive record in that time span at 7-1 and 7-2 respectively. All three teams will be playing in Saturday's semifinals along with Baylor at 4-3 over the last four years.
• The Aggies are the only team to make four consecutive semifinal appearances in the last four years of the Big 12 Championship in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. It marked only the third time in league history in which a member school reached four-or-more semifinal appearances in a row next to five-straight by Iowa State in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 and four-straight by Baylor in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.
• A&M's current four-game winning streak in Big 12 Championship games is more than its three overall wins in 14 tries in postseason league play prior to its 3-0 title run in 2007-08. The Aggies now hold a 7-11 tournament record after Friday's victory over Kansas State.
KANSAS STATE RECAP
Texas A&M 65, Kansas State 63
• For the 13th time this season, Texas A&M used the starting five of Takia Starks, Tanisha Smith, Danielle Gant and La Toya Micheaux (10-3).
• The Aggies move on to the semifinals for the fourth-consecutive year and won back-to-back games in the series with Kansas State for only the second time in program history next to regular-season victories in 1997-98 and 1998-99.
• Danielle Gant turned in her seventh double-double of the season and 19th of her career with a game-high tying 22 points and a season-high 14 rebounds versus Kansas State. Her points marked the most of her career against the Wildcats. It also marked her 17th career and fifth 20-point game of the season. She is also five rebounds away from her 900th career rebound and would become the third player to do so in school history.
• Gant's points and rebounds were the most of her career five games played in her hometown of Oklahoma City surpassing a previous high of 10 points against Tennessee in the NCAA Elite Eight on April 1, 2008 at the Ford Center, and eight rebounds versus Iowa State in the Big 12 Semifinals on March 8, 2007 at the Cox Convention Center.
• Takia Starks reached double figures in the first half for the ninth time this season with 11 of her 13 points against Kansas State. She is now 11 points away from recording her 1,900th career point with 1,889 to date.
• Tanisha Smith has now reached double digits in 14 games of the season with 10 versus K-State. She has also distributed five-or-more assists in each of the last four games with one or no turnovers per game. Smith dished out a team-high five with one turnover against the Wildcats. Her last four-game total is 25 assists with three turnovers for an impressive 8.33 assist-to-turnover ratio.
• La Toya Micheaux brought down seven rebounds against the Wildcats to move into fourth all-time in career rebounding with 787 to date. She surpassed former player Susan Kimbro who had 782 from 1977-80.
• Freshman Adaora Elonu came off the bench and contributed a career-high tying six first-half points. She also had six points in the first half of play at Stephen F. Austin on Dec. 2 and at Arizona on Nov. 25. Her 10 total points for the game tied a career-best against a Big 12 opponent with 10 versus Texas Tech on Jan. 13 and 10 against rival Texas on Jan. 21.
• The Aggies made a season-low seven turnovers versus the Wildcats' defense. Their previous season low was eight miscues against No. 25 New Mexico on Dec. 30. It marked the third-straight contest and sixth overall of the season that A&M has turned over the ball less than 10 times in a game. They had 10 at fifth-ranked Baylor in the regular-season finale on March 7 and 10 against Oklahoma State on Senior Day on March 5.
NOTEABLE QUOTABLES
"We know it is going to be a big game and it will go down-to-the-wire like it did tonight. I think it is a matter of playing good defense. Great teams have great offense, both OU and us. I think the key thing is going to be defense. We are going to go out and play team defense, not just against Courtney (Paris) down low. We will have two in the lane every time she touches the ball." - Senior All-America candidate Danielle Gant on what has become a rivalry between Texas A&M and Oklahoma
"I think defense will play an important part in who wins the game tomorrow. We are looking forward to it and we will be pumped to play them." - Freshman Adaora Elonu on looking ahead at their semifinal match against OU
AGGIES ON THE RADIO
All Texas A&M women's basketball games at the Big 12 Championship 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 Cox Convention Center alongside color analyst and former player Katy Pounds on KZNE 1150 AM. A live audio feed will also be available on www.AggieAthletics.com.