Texas A&M
19-5, 7-4
Colorado
10-12, 2-8
Four Aggies Score In Double Figures In 79-50 Blowout Of Colorado
Feb 14, 2009 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 14, 2009
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COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Four players scored in double figures to lead No. 8 Texas A&M to a 79-50 blowout of Colorado before a pink-out crowd of 4,469 in its third-annual BTHO Breast Cancer game benefiting the Kay Yow Foundation Saturday afternoon at Reed Arena.
Preseason Big 12 Newcomer of the Year Tanisha Smith (Kansas City, Mo.) recorded her first career double-double with a team-high 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Aggies (19-5, 7-4) who bounced back in Big 12 Conference play after a road loss at Texas Tech on Wednesday. A&M picked up its 10th win of the season at Reed Arena where it has claimed its two largest margin of victories in school history against a league opponent. The Aggies defeated CU by 29 points on Saturday and Nebraska by 43 points on Sunday.
A&M never trailed in the ballgame and led by as many as 32 points with 35 seconds remaining in regulation. The Aggies mounted a 20-4 run on the Buffaloes in the first 10 minutes of play and held them to two buckets and nine percent shooting from the floor in that span.
Senior All-America candidate Danielle Gant (Oklahoma City, Okla.) was perfect in that first half going 5-for-5 from the field and 2-for-2 from the charity stripe for all of her 12 points for the game. Meanwhile, preseason Big 12 Freshman of the Year Takia Starks (Houston, Texas) rounded out the double-figure scorers with 11.
Colorado (10-12, 2-8) suffered its third-straight loss in league play and goes to 0-6 after its final stop against the Big 12 South. The Buffaloes were paced by a 25-point and 10-rebound double-double by top player Brittany Spears. CU opened up the second half with nine-straight points to get within 17, but it wasn't enough to overcome its deficit against the Aggies.
A&M will enjoy a bye week from competition to prepare for its final five-game stretch of the Big 12 season ahead. They will take on in-state rival Texas (18-5, 6-3) a week from now in the second edition of the State Farm Lone Star Showdown on Saturday, Feb. 21 at Reed Arena. The game will be televised nationally on Fox Sports Net beginning at 11 a.m. (CT).
POSTGAME NOTES
• For the first time this season, Texas A&M used the starting five of Tanisha Smith brought down a career-high 10 rebounds and also reached double figures for the ninth time this season with a team-high 15 points against CU. Both marks earned her the first double-double of her career at Texas A&M.
• Maryann Baker saw her first career start against Colorado in 46 all-time career games played for the Aggies. Baker tied a career-high three rebounds in just the first five minutes of the ballgame. She also saw a career-high 11 minutes of action versus CU.
• Tyra White notched a league career-high 12 points and her sixth double figure game of the season since a career-and season-high 15-point outburst against Texas State on Dec. 13.
• Sydney Carter played flawless at the point for the second time this season when serving up more than five assists. She distributed five assists with zero turnovers versus Colorado behind a career-best six assist, zero turnover effort against George Washington on Jan. 3.
• The A&M defense held the Buffaloes to their third fewest first-half points of the season (16). The Aggies' 22-point halftime lead was the second-largest lead by a CU opponent this season behind a 30-point halftime lead by Seton Hall on Dec. 9. Colorado's 16 first-half points was the third fewest by an Aggie opponent this season and the fewest by a league foe in 11 games played.
POSTGAME QUOTES
Texas A&M Head Coach Gary Blair
On the game ...
"There was no way that we thought we would be up 12-2 to start off the game. Our press wasn't good, but our half court defense was very good in the first half. This is the hardest game of the year for me. I have a soft heart, it's Valentine's Day and you want to get all of your kids in. Our players did a good job and our bench played within themselves. (Sydney) Carter was very good again and had five assists with no turnovers. I was pleased with how we played in regard to our field-goal, free-throw and three-point percentages. If you get two out of three, it's very good. I told our players at the half, we were 1-for-7, why do we need to shoot the three? We haven't been shooting a lot of them this year, but we were so wide open in the first half, we just kept firing it up there. I said, `we can get any shot we want, we just need to take it off the dribble' like Tanisha (Smith) was doing. We just had the mismatches that we needed today."
On Colorado and the team's rebounding efforts ...
"Colorado with (Brittany) Spears. We wanted to play her sort of like we play (Oklahoma State's) Andrea Riley. As long as she shoots under 30 percent, then we think we are doing our job. She is so good off the dribble and you are not going to stop her all of the time. We also did a good job of limiting the touches to Kara Richards. When your five player only gets five shots off, I think you have done a pretty good job. We didn't force a lot of turnovers like we usually do. But, that is due to how they wanted to run their offense - Kansas State style which is keeping the ball in the hands of the point guard for 20 seconds and then make a play in the last 10 seconds of the possession and don't turn it over. It's a game plan we see against a lot of the North teams against us and it works. When we shoot this well on the offensive end, nothing changes. It was by far our best game on the boards, 50-32, and I thought we were very active in there."
On the No. 1 objective for the team after the Texas Tech loss ...
"We practiced well before the Tech game. We had no idea that we were going to go up there and play that poorly and Tech was going to play that well. We put in a couple of new sets today that we executed. Sometimes you have to change it up, because everyone has so much film on you. We wanted balance between our post players and our guards. As long as you have balance and you get four kids in double figures, it didn't matter which ones did."
On the significance of the Breast Cancer game ...
"Life is so precious. It is just very meaningful when you go back to the cause, the Kay Yow Foundation. When you lose a great person, it is more important than losing a great player or a great coach. She was just a great person. We can use this game and games across the country to rally around someone who gave her life back to fighting cancer. She battled it and I hope if that happens to me someday, that I can be a battler like her and go out and raise money for the cure. I was pleased with the student crowd and pleased with the 5K run today."
Texas A&M Junior Guard/Forward Tanisha Smith
On what changed in her game today ...
"I think my game is still the same. I was just a little more focused today. In the past, I felt like I was letting my team down. I didn't rebound or didn't score to my ability. I didn't defend like I could. Overall, I felt like I had a better game today. I picked up my defense and came out more prepared."
On the difference between the Texas Tech and Colorado games ...
"As far as the road trip to Tech, we didn't have any chemistry on defense nor offense. We were relying on T-Kay and D.G. to make the big shots and make the defensive stops. We got back (to College Station), we went to work and didn't take a day off. I think our team chemistry is coming along, we just need to take it on the road with us."
Texas A&M Senior Guard/Forward Danielle Gant
On the team's importance today on rebounding ...
"It was very important. We knew that we had a mismatch down low. Coach (Blair) wanted me to get a lot of boards, because they didn't go to the offensive board. Rebounding is very important. In our last game, we got outrebounded. In practice the last couple of days, we did a lot of rebounding drills and I think that paid off in today's game for us."
Colorado Head Coach Kathy McConnell-Miller
On the team's run in the second half ...
"We became a little more of a driving team. I thought A&M just did a great job of really guarding the perimeter and switching everything. I thought we had a lineup in there which was a better driving team than what our starting lineup is. Going off the bounce and getting to the rim was far more effective than running our sets. At that point, we had to improvise a little bit and come out of our comfort zone. We were a little more successful after that."
On challenging her team to fight through the deficit against A&M ...
"I don't think they quit once. There wasn't one possession (that they did). I thought they played really hard. I just think we were completely outmatched. It wasn't just their first five. Their second five completely outmatched us today. If we can take what we learn from this game and get better for our next opponent which is Kansas. If they show up on Monday with Colorado on their chest, they have responded. They have put this game behind and we have grown in areas that we needed to grow."
On A&M's rebounding in the game ...
"There was a stretch there where they were just getting second attempt after second attempt which were leading to buckets. We just had a different lineup on the floor. Some of it was due to personnel, but the majority of it was due to Texas A&M on how good they are on the boards. I think rebounding hurts every team. Particularly, a team who is one and done which is not going to make a good season for us. That's what it was quite a bit for us today."
