Texas A&M
1-0
Duke
1-1
No. 16 Aggies, Adams Stun No. 6 Duke In 95-77 Season-Opening Win
Nov 15, 2009 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 15, 2009
Box Score |
Photo Gallery 1 
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Photo Gallery 2
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) - Danielle Adams scored 24 points in her Texas A&M debut and the Aggies stunned No. 6 Duke 95-77 on Sunday.
The Aggies (1-0) took the lead near the midway point of the first half and didn't trail again. Despite poor shooting, the Blue Devils (1-1) cut the lead to three points with about 14 minutes remaining, but the Aggies scored 10 straight points to make it 65-52 and Duke didn't threaten again.
Adams scored seven points in that span, including a nifty off-balance layup which she turned into a three-point play.
Tanisha Smith as a timeout was called.
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Danielle Adams, Sydney Colson, & Sydney Carter [mp3] Duke Coach Joanne P. McCallie & Guard Jasmine Thomas [mp3] |
The win improved Texas A&M's all-time record against the Blue Devils to 3-0. This was the first meeting between the schools since a 77-63 win by the Aggies in the round of 16 in the 2008 NCAA tournament.
Texas A&M got 19 points from Smith, 17 from Colson and Damitria Buchanan had seven rebounds and tied an A&M record with seven blocks.
Jasmine Thomas had a career-high 26 points for the Blue Devils and Allison Vernerey scored 11.
Adams, the preseason Big 12 newcomer of the year and last year's junior college player of the year at Jefferson College, had five rebounds and a block and made three 3-pointers.
This game was a much tougher test for the Blue Devils after they beat tiny Houston Baptist 104-35 in their opener Friday night. Against the Aggies they were foiled by poor shooting as they made 26 of 78 shots while Texas A&M was 33 of 58. Texas A&M had nine 3-pointers while Duke made four of 20.
The Aggies were up by 13 points when Duke finally got going and went on a 11-1 run to get within 55-52 on a jumper by Thomas with about 14 minutes left. But Adams and the Aggies thwarted the rally to cruise to the win.
Texas A&M was up by 15 points before scoring six straight points thanks to a missed layup and two turnovers by Duke to make it 82-61 with about 6 minutes remaining.
The Aggies led by 10 points at halftime and five quick points by Colson sandwiched around a layup by Duke's Joy Cheek stretched the led to 50-37 early in the second half.
Texas A&M took a 13-12 lead with about 12 minutes in the first half when Carter hit both free throws after Karima Christmas was called for an intentional foul after pushing her down from behind on a fast break.
That was the start of an 8-0 run that pushed Texas A&M's lead to 19-12 about 10 minutes before halftime.
Duke cut the lead to four points before the Aggies went on another 8-0 run fueled by two 3-pointers by Carter to make it 31-19 with 5 1/2 minutes left in the first half.
The Blue Devils got within five a couple of minutes later but Texas A&M outscored them 10-5 to lead 45-35 at halftime.
Up next, the Aggies will host Rice (0-1) on Wednesday, Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. (CT) at Reed Arena. Tickets can be purchased online at: www.12thManFoundation.com/tickets, in person at the 12th Man Foundation Ticket Office and Reed Arena Box Office or by calling 1-888-99-AGGIE.
POSTGAME NOTES
• Texas A&M used the starting lineup of Tanisha Smith, Damitria Buchanan. It marked only the second career start for White, eighth for Buchanan, 15th for Elonu, 22nd for Smith and 35th for Colson.
• The Aggies saw their largest-ever home crowd for a season opener with 6,866 fans in attendance at Reed Arena. It was also the largest-ever non-conference home crowd in school history.
• A&M's 95 points in the ballgame was the third-most points scored in a season-opening game in 36 years of Aggie Basketball. It was also the most points ever scored against a ranked opponent.
• With the victory, the Aggies remain an undefeated 3-0 in the all-time series with Duke. The Blue Devils were ranked on all three occasions: No. 16 in 1995-96, No. 9 in 2007-08 in the NCAA Sweet 16 and No. 6 in 2009-10.
• It was A&M's first-ever win against a top 10-ranked non-conference opponent on their home court (G. Rollie White Coliseum and Reed Arena combined).
• Damitria Buchanan tied the school single-game record for blocked shots (7) with former A&M great Morenike Atunrase who also had seven stops against Oklahoma State on Jan. 12, 2005. It was a career-high for Buchanan who moved into the top 10 for career blocked shots in the A&M record books. She surpassed former player Martha McClelland (1992-96) for 10th all-time with 62 career blocks to date.
• Sydney Colson turned in a career-high 19 points and dished out 10 assists which marked only her second double-digit assist game next to a career-best 11 versus Texas State on Dec. 13, 2008.
• Danielle Adams scored a team-high 24 points going 3-of-4 from the downtown to mark the best single-game scoring performance by an Aggie in a season opener in the Gary Blair Era.
• Sydney Carter was one of five double figure scorers and ended the game with 10 points. It marked only the fifth time of her career to reach double digits.
• The A&M defense held the Blue Devils to just 37.5 percent shooting from the floor (12-of-32) and to 77 points for the ballgame. Duke had reached the 100-point plateau in their first two outings of the season versus Alaska Anchorage (100) in exhibition play on Nov. 8 and season opener at Houston Baptist (104) on Nov. 13.
POSTGAME QUOTES
Texas A&M Head Coach Gary Blair
On the game ...
"Our kids were hooked up. They played well and our crowd was tremendous. To have an NCAA playoff-type game for the first of the year, it said a lot about our program being committed to playing the best. It's a risk-reward situation. We are trying to keep our schedule upgraded. Hopefully, we will be able to get the Tennessee's, Connecticut's and Stanford's here in years to come. We had tremendous guard play in the first half. We had three Final Four officials calling the ballgame and they let both teams play at the highest level. I am so happy. This was a great win for our program. Our coaching staff prepared tremendously for this game. We shot 66 percent (in the second half) against a great team. I thought we played beautiful defense. It was an NCAA playoff game in November. Give our 12th Man, the students and the Corps of Cadets credit for showing up, too. Hopefully, they'll be back on Wednesday night (against Rice)."
On Damitria Buchanan on her school-record tying seven blocked shots ...
"Damitria Buchanan looked like (La Toya) Micheaux2 out there. Seven blocks and seven rebounds. That's what this team is all about - people stepping up and role playing."
On Danielle Adams ...
"She just knows how to play the game. How many kids at the JUCO level can understand the game so well? Danielle Adams is going to be a force. Give (assistant strength and conditioning coach) Jen Jones and our nutritionist (Amy Bragg) a lot of credit. They have done a great job with her. She shot those threes so effortlessly in the ballgame. She is special and such a good-natured young lady. We won this game, not just because of Danielle Adams, but because of the tremendous balance and role play we have on this team."
Texas A&M Junior Forward/Center Danielle Adams
On her first official game as an Aggie ...
"I feel really happy. We were able to get a great win against a really good team. The No. 6 team in the country. The atmosphere was great. I've never seen anything like it in junior college and I really enjoyed it. I came to Texas A&M to make my mark. It (the transition from JUCO to Division I) is a lot more physical and faster."
Texas A&M Sophomore Guard Sydney Carter
On her aggressive role play in the game ...
"Coach Blair always tells me that we need energy players. If I come off the bench as the team's sixth man, I need to come in and spark the energy and make a difference in each game."
Texas A&M Junior Point Guard Sydney Colson
On Duke cutting down the lead to three in the second half ...
"The first four minutes of the second half are always huge for us. We know we have to go out and defend well. We knew they were going to get back in there after halftime. We were making a few stops, but they were able to score. We know as long as we defend well, our offense will come. This year, we are much more balanced and we have so many offensive threats."
Duke Head Coach Joanne P. McCallie
On the game ...
"It was a very physical game and a very good game. A March game in November. A&M executed and played very, very well. There were a lot of good lessons for us to learn from this game."
On Danielle Adams ...
"She is really unique - 24 points in 22 minutes. We did scout her for the three-point shot. She was her own kind of cat out there. They (Texas A&M) played a team game today. You are looking at five players in double figures on the stat sheet. Our team defense didn't perform and that was a problem for us today."
Duke Junior Guard Jasmine Thomas
On the game ...
"We were playing hard defensively at the start of the second half, but didn't get that run going. When we got within three, we, I should have made better decisions. The team feeds off of leadership. We will go back to practice and work on them. I'm not surprised at their (Texas A&M's) intensity. They are still physical, aggressive and the same type of team we saw two years ago in the Sweet 16. They did everything we expected them to do."
