Texas A&M
26-7
Evansville
15-19
No. 9 Aggies Rout Evansville To Move On To NCAA Second Round
Mar 22, 2009 | Women's Basketball
March 22, 2009
Box Score 
| Highlights |
Box Score |
Photo Gallery 1 
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Photo Gallery 2 |
Photo Gallery 3
Coach Blair Opening Statement
Q&A with Gant & Smith
Q&A with Head Coach Blair
SOUTH BEND, Ind. - The ninth-ranked and second-seeded Texas A&M women's basketball team stayed true to its seed with an 80-45 rout of 15th-seeded Evansville in the first round of the 2009 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship held Sunday afternoon at the Joyce Center.
The Aggies (26-7) forced the Purple Aces (15-19) to an opponent season-high 30 turnovers which they converted into 43 of their total points for the game. Senior All-America candidate Danielle Gant (Oklahoma City, Okla.) scored a game-high 21 points to lead A&M past the opening round for the third-straight season. Gant had six points in a 14-0 run to send the Aggies to a 20-5 lead in the early going.
A&M went on a 15-2 run after the halftime break to put the game away. The Aggie defense held Evansville to 25 percent shooting from the floor (7-of-28) and senior All-America candidate Takia Starks (Houston, Texas) scored 13 of her 19 points in the second half of play. Starks eclipsed the 13-year-old all-time career scoring record held by former A&M All-American Lisa Branch (1992-96) after being fouled on a jumper with 3:07 to go. She knocked down the extra free throw to make it 1,942 for her career with more to come.
Junior Tanisha Smith (Kansas City, Mo.) hit a jumper with 14:05 remaining in regulation, 49-29, to extend A&M's lead to more than 20 points for the first time in the ballgame. Smith, the Big 12 Conference Newcomer of the Year, finished with a career-high 20 points in her first NCAA Tournament appearance.
The Purple Aces, making their second-ever tournament berth, were paced by Shannon Novosel with 14 points. Their 30 turnovers were one short of the season high they had against Notre Dame on the same floor on Nov. 19.
For the second year in a row, the Aggies will face the No. 10 seed in Minnesota (20-11) on Tuesday, March 24 at 6 p.m. (CT) which will be televised live on ESPN2. The Golden Gophers upset seventh-seeded and host Notre Dame (22-9) in the second game of the twin bill, 79-71.
POSTGAME NOTES
• For the 16th time this season, Texas A&M used the starting lineup of Danielle Gant and La Toya Micheaux (12-4). Starks, Gant and Micheaux have now started in four-straight NCAA Tournaments, the most of any senior class in school history.
• With the victory, A&M tied for the second-most wins in school history with 26 on the season next to the 1978-79 squad that went 26-18. The Aggies also improve to 1-0 in the all-time series with Evansville.
• Takia Starks registered an NCAA Tournament career-high 19 points and became the school's all-time leading scorer on a three-point play at the 3:07 minute mark of the second half. She surpassed former A&M All-American Lisa Branch (1,939) and has now recorded 1,942 career points to date.
• Danielle Gant knocked down a game-high 21 points versus the Purple Aces. It marked her third career 20-point game in the NCAA Tournament. She shot 10-for-12 from the floor (83.3 percent) which matched a season-high for field goals made next to a 10-for-10 performance at Missouri on Jan. 10 and 10-for-15 outing against No. 25 New Mexico on Dec. 30.
• Gant also grabbed a team-high tying six rebounds and is now 12 boards away from breaking the all-time school record in the category held by Prissy Sharpe (920) with 909 career rebounds to date.
• Starks and Gant each turned in their 100th career point in NCAA Tournament play against Evansville in the first round. Gant has compiled 119 career points and Starks 110 in eight career NCAA games played.
• Tanisha Smith made her first NCAA Tournament appearance and turned in a career-high 20 points. It marked her first 20-point game of her Aggie career and eclipsed a previous high of 19 against Baylor on Jan. 21. A&M had two 20-point scorers in a single game for the second time this season next to a season-high 27 points by Gant and 24 points by Starks against No. 25 New Mexico on Dec. 30.
• La Toya Micheaux tied a team-high with six rebounds against Evansville to become only the fourth player in school history to bring down 800 career rebounds (805) next to Gant, Sharpe and Lisa Jordon (911).
• The A&M defense forced the Purple Aces to an opponent season-high 30 turnovers in the game which the Aggies converted into a season-high 44 of its total 80 points for the ballgame. A&M's previous high was 41 points off of 26 turnovers against SMU on Dec. 7. It marked the sixth time this season in which A&M scored 80 points-or-more against an opponent. It was also the second-most points scored by the Aggies in an NCAA Tournament game behind 91 points in the first round against UTSA in 2008.
• The Aggies shot 94.1 percent from the charity stripe (16-of-17) which bested its 2-of-2 performance at Kansas State in Big 12 Conference regular-season play on March 1.
• A&M had a season-high 18 steals against the Purple Aces. The Aggies had 10 players tally at least one steal in the first-round contest.
• Northwestern head coach Joe McKeown, one of head coach Gary Blair's best friends in the business who previously coached at George Washington, was in attendance for A&M's first-round matchup in South Bend.
POSTGAME QUOTES
Texas A&M Head Coach Gary Blair
On the game ...
"I thought we really came out ready to play, because of the respect that we have for Evansville and what they have already accomplished. I think it's good for the teams playing on Sunday to able to watch the teams on Saturday play, particularly the 2-15 line or the 1-16 line. There's not a lot of upsets there, but it's how you play the game. A couple of those teams were not ready to play and Cinderella almost won. We wanted to make sure that we kept it simple. Early on, I felt our shot selection was not very good. We were not converting on turnovers. In the second half and at halftime, I told them that I wanted a 15-foot and under team. I wanted to shoot from under 15. We don't need threes. We need possessions and we need efficiency. They surprised us, by playing as much man as they did. They were going to campfire around (Danielle) Gant, but she is a very unselfish player and she still found her shot even in transition or getting to the line. Sometimes, it is hard to tell a kid not to shoot a ball. Look where you are on the shot clock. If you're on the shot clock and you have 20 seconds to go, than get a better shot. When we put our Three Amigos together, they're very patient. Tanisha (Smith) took over the second half in about a six-minute period. I'm just proud of our threesome and I'm also proud of our bench that allows me to rest people and rotate people in. That's the strength of our basketball team, when we can play 10 players like we did and just get after people."
On respect for Evansville's resilience ...
"I used yesterday's games as a motivation. I stayed up late last night watching what Marist, Gonzaga and San Diego State could do on its home court. You have to play off of whatever you can get. Evansville head coach Misty Murphy was on the bench when we went down to Rice and they kicked our rear (in Houston). They were doing a good job of taking things away early and it was taking us too long to recognize what we wanted to do on the offensive end. We missed a lot of decent shots early. At the same time, we were not recognizing the defense. Evansville was a very good ballclub. (Shannon) Novosel and (Robyn) Jennings were inside and I thought their post players played every bit as well as mine, particularly on the boards and in driving. (Ashley) Austin is a load in there and she's a good player. She just needs to create a little bit more. I like her game. Coach Murphy has three pretty good kids to build a team with right there."
On today's defensive effort and the team's toughness ...
"Well, there's toughness on some of our kids all of the time. (Danielle) Gant is a four-letter word and she understands that. During the second half, she was denying a kid out to the circle. That's just the mentality that she has. I wish I could tell you that she didn't have it, before she came to A&M, but she had it. She's just a hardworking 5-foot-10 player and is one of the best in the country. At the next level, she'll play outside which she can do. I have to put Gant inside at forward and bring freshman Adaora Elonu along a little bit slower. She started the majority of the season in non-conference and we brought her back. We will not turnover Notre Dame or Minnesota 30 times. Their guards are too good. They are every bit as physical as we are. The difference is that we're quicker. Big Ten basketball is about physical kids and there are going to be bodies flying tomorrow. They are both very good teams. If you have gone through the Big East or the Big Ten, you've seen teams that are every bit as good as Texas A&M. But, maybe our style is a little bit different."
On the crowd and the atmosphere ...
"I think the crowd would still be good, even if Notre Dame was not in the tournament here. This is basketball country up here and they appreciate good basketball. They were applauding good plays by both teams and they showed up early to the first game. I think that's a credit to basketball in the Midwest. I want to take it back and make it contagious to a lot of Texas fans to make them realize that there are other sports besides football. I really like the atmosphere. It's just a well-run operation. It's good to get that feeling here."
On Takia Starks setting the school's career scoring record ...
"I wanted to get it out of the way. I would have loved for (Danielle) Gant to have gotten hers, but it's just hard to do it in a game like that. (Takia) Starks can play tired. She can play hurt and after a mistake. She won't make the same mistake a second time. When I had all those freshmen in there with her, I wanted T-Kay to balance them out. I wanted her to take us under control, while we were trying to teach our younger kids."
Texas A&M Senior Forward/Guard Danielle Gant
On being successful down low ...
"In the first half, they were collapsing on me a little more. In the second half, they didn't collapse on me down enough and Coach Blair told them to get the ball into me. He said I either needed to score or get the foul. I think I just got the ball inside and scored."
On scouting Minnesota or Notre Dame ...
"We know a little bit about them, but yesterday we just watched film on the team we had to play today. We were just trying to get through this game. I think tonight, we'll look at film and see what we have to face on Tuesday."
On playing on the road again on Tuesday ...
"We've been in this position before, playing on the road. We know Notre Dame has a very great offense. Their motion is very good, but we've been in situations like that before. I think the three seniors are going to have to go out there and step up verbally on the court and take over the team on offense and defense."
On Texas A&M's defense ...
"I think we're constantly moving. The guards are constantly up at the line, so the pressure is on the point guard and that's very important for us. I think that's our main goal, to get pressure on the point guard, so that the post cannot see the ball or the wing entry cannot be passed to the side."
Texas A&M Junior Forward/Guard Tanisha Smith
On the team's defensive mentality ...
"We deny the wings, help side. It's team defense. There's no `I' in our defense. Basically, we just have to help each other and know to get offensive looks. We have to play defense."
On playing another road game Tuesday with an expected large crowd ...
"We had plenty of road games this year. If we play our defense, our offense will come. We can't worry about what Notre Dame or Minnesota is going to do. We just have to worry about ourselves."
Evansville Head Coach Misty Murphy
On the overall NCAA Tournament experience ...
"I'm extremely proud of my team to make the run to get here in the first place. They're a tremendous group of young women that worked very hard, that believed in what we were trying to accomplish, and have certainly elevated UE women's basketball. I can't be more proud of them for that. A&M's a tremendous ball club, no question. We were outmatched in just about every category and I give them a lot of credit. They dictated what we did out there. It was a great experience for our program and it gives us something to build on."
On A&M's defense ...
"In the first half, we were right there. In the second half, A&M increased that defensive intensity that we knew we were going to face and credit them. They took us out of our momentum and scored 43 points off of our turnovers. That was the difference of the game, their amazing defensive pressure."
