Texas A&M
27-8
Arizona State
26-8
No. 9 Aggies Fall To Arizona State In NCAA Sweet 16, 84-69
Mar 29, 2009 | Women's Basketball
March 29, 2009
Coach Blair Opening Statement
Q&A with Micheaux, Gant, Starks, & Smith
Q&A with Coach Blair
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TRENTON, N.J. - Second-seeded Texas A&M fell to sixth-seeded Arizona State, 84-69, in its second-straight and third overall NCAA Sweet 16 appearance on Sunday afternoon at Sovereign Bank Arena.
Three players scored in double figures for the Aggies (27-8) including a team-high 19 points by junior Tanisha Smith (Kansas City, Mo.) who went 9-of-14 from the floor and had 11 points in the first half alone. A&M couldn't get over the hump as they trailed Arizona State (26-8) for most of the contest. Smith's game-opening bucket at 19:45 and her first-half layup at 10:05 where the only two leads the Aggies had in the ballgame.
After capitalizing on 62 combined turnovers against 15th-seeded Evansville and 10th-seeded Minnesota in the first and second rounds, A&M was not able to do the same against ASU. Playing a sound offensive game shooting 48.3 percent from the floor with multiple scorers, the Aggies couldn't stop Arizona State's Briann January from hitting 22 points on 8-of-10 shooting and 6-of-6 makes from the charity stripe. In fact, the Sun Devils didn't miss at all with an opponent season-high 62.0 shooting percentage from the floor (31-of-50).
Both teams traded baskets in the opening minutes of play and followed it up with perfection from the free throw line as A&M went a school-record 10-for-10 and ASU went 18-of-21. Smith hit a jumper with time about to expire to cut the Sun Devils' lead to 42-37 at halftime.
The Aggies got within one early in the second half and within three when senior All-America candidate Takia Starks (Houston, Texas) hit two free throws with 7:12 remaining in regulation to close the gap, 68-65. ASU did not take control until the final three minutes when it used a 7-2 run to push the lead out to 10 points.
Starks ended her Aggie career with 18 points, while senior All-America candidate Danielle Gant (Oklahoma City, Okla.) closed our four years in Aggieland with 13 points and six rebounds against the Sun Devils who will face top-seeded and top-ranked Connecticut (36-0) in the Trenton Regional finals on Tuesday.
POSTGAME NOTES
• For the 18th time this season, Texas A&M used the starting lineup of Takia Starks, Tanisha Smith, Danielle Gant and La Toya Micheaux (13-5). Starks and Micheaux are the only two players in school history to start in four NCAA Tournaments.
• The Aggies ended the season with the second-most wins (27) and tied for the second-fewest losses in 35 seasons of Aggie Basketball. A&M made only its third-ever NCAA Sweet 16 appearance and second in a row.
• Takia Starks, Danielle Gant and La Toya Micheaux ended their four-year careers as the winningest senior class in program history with an impressive 104-32 (.765) record since their freshman campaign in 2005-06.
• Starks, who is Texas A&M's all-time career scoring leader, registered 18 points versus Arizona State to close out her career with 1,977 points.
• Starks and Gant along with Tanisha Smith each reached double figures in all three NCAA Tournament games, while Smith recording a team-high 19 points in the loss for her eighth-straight double-digit game.
• Gant also closed out the season on an eight-game streak with 13 points and a team-high six rebounds. She ended her four-year career ranked second all-time in rebounding (919), fourth all-time in blocked shots (110) and third all-time in steals (269).
• The Aggies shot a school-record 10-for-10 (1.000) from the free throw line versus ASU which eclipsed a previous school-record single-game high of 96.0 percent (24-of-25) against North Carolina A&T on Dec. 30, 2007. It was A&M's best free-throw percentage in 14 all-time NCAA Tournament games played.
• La Toya Micheaux dished out a season-high tying four assists against the Sun Devils. Micheaux closed out her career fourth all-time in rebounding (814) and fifth all-time in blocked shots (91).
• Arizona State shot an opponent season-high 62.0 percent from the floor and knocked down an opponent-season high 84 points. Kansas previously shot 56.4 percent against the Aggies on Jan. 31 and Baylor scored 72 points on March 15 in the Big 12 championship game.
• A&M made a total of 15 steals against the Sun Devils and ended the season with 418 to mark the second most in a single season in program history behind 449 in 2001-02.
POSTGAME QUOTES
Texas A&M Head Coach Gary Blair
On the game ...
"It was a tremendous job by Arizona State. That's the story today. What they did on the offensive end with execution. I cannot tell you how many times they hit a shot with three, two or one second to go. Their kids stepped up and made plays. That's what you do at this level and every time we thought we were at great positions to make a stop or we finally did make a miss, they got an offensive rebound or put back. It looked like a horse game out there in the first half, because neither team could stop the other. They'd make a play, we'd make a play. Both teams were doing what they wanted to on the offensive end. I think eventually it was going to catch up to us, because we were not doing enough. We were not getting the ball enough. Kayli Murphy was doing a good job of cornering (Danielle) Gant inside. Arizona State is really good. The game was won at the point guard position. (Briann) January was every bit as good as we thought and better offensively. When we were having trouble stopping her, I had to go with (Takia) Starks at the point, because my two young kids could not guard. That really hurt our chemistry in there, because we were not running very good on offense, without a true point guard in there. We had to gamble and it didn't matter what we did on offense. If a team is going to shoot 62 percent on their side, there's not too many times you can win a ballgame. I would like to thank these four players up here for giving us a great ride. It was a very special time, particularly with these three seniors here. But, we're not finished yet. We are going back to the drawing board and we'll start all over again and be right back here next year."
On Arizona State's offense ...
"They kept moving without the ball and I think that was the best thing they did offensively. Their players were constantly moving to open spots. When we would take the dribble-drive away, they would find (Kate) Engelbrecht over there in the corner. She had a couple of big shots. They took advantage of our screens. I didn't think anyone could just flat out win all of the hustle points. I think they did. In the second half, when we made our run to come back, they started releasing post players and sent them to the boards. Our point guard is supposed to pick them up. Whether it's their man or not, it didn't happen. You look at the easy baskets that they got and you look at how hard we had to work for them. We'd come down on a 2-on-1 break and turn into a pretzel trying to make a simple layup and trying to get a foul call instead of trying to make a basket. Those are the things that hurt us more than anything. We hurt ourselves with missed opportunities after we forced turnovers. They did a good job of picking us apart just on slips, offensive boards and us making mistakes. All the credit to Arizona State, because they executed. They were a better basketball team today. I think if they can play at that level, they can give Connecticut a good run. Connecticut is one of the greatest teams I've ever seen, but they can give them a good run if they can execute at that same level."
On Arizona State making last-second shots on the shot clock ...
"It's just their time. Kids stepping up. I told our basketball team `I'm not disappointed in our effort or anything.' Sometimes I was disappointed in our decision making. We'd make a mistake at the end, standing around too much on offense and defense. It's March, it's late March. You have 16 teams out there playing and they're all good. Today, the better team stepped up. I thought our game plan was good, obviously if we can shoot 55 percent. I wasn't real happy with some of our turnovers, but most of them were unforced turnovers. It's just a disappointing way to go out, because last year when we played Tennessee, we had a great chance to win and we didn't do it. Today, it's more about did we lose or did Arizona State just flat win? They won everything that goes on the stat sheet. The offensive boards, the turnover battle, they got the easy points. We had no easy points. Their bench came in and outplayed my bench. You just have to give them credit. It was their day. Just move on and say `hey we're going back to work.' We're graduating three kids, we've got good kids coming back, we have a great recruiting class coming in. Hopefully, there will be others to follow. Our kids are just a little disappointed today, because that's not the best that we have in us. Hopefully, that was the best that Arizona State had, because I don't think they can play any better than what they did today. Their kids stepped up and that's what this is all about. I think you remember last year in the Final Four and what Stanford did to Connecticut. Stanford could not have played any better and sometimes it's just not your night. It doesn't matter if you thought Connecticut had a better team than Stanford. On that particular night, it was all Stanford. Tonight, it was Arizona State. We cut it to three with seven to go. (Takia) Starks gets stripped. That's tough by the Pac-10 player of the year. They make the basket and cut it to five. That was one of the biggest daggers that we had right there. This was a well-run tournament. I love Trenton, but I'm 0-2 here, so next time can you make it somewhere else? As long as we're dancing in the Sweet 16. I love your state. The whole nine yards, Italian places. But, I'd like to go someplace else."
Texas A&M Senior Forward/Guard Danielle Gant
On whether or not Arizona State's substitutions wore the Aggies down ...
"I don't think so. In the second half, it got to us a little bit, because they kept rotating in and out. (La Toya) Micheaux and I were constantly staying on the floor having to play offense and good defense, so I think in the second half it did just a little bit. That's not the reason why we lost today. I think it was more of us having a mentality of not getting back on defense. That was just the main thing for us."
Texas A&M Senior Center La Toya Micheaux
On not being able to get over the hump when getting so close to ASU in the game ...
"It was very frustrating. We couldn't get back. You get so close then all of a sudden, it's easy layups that they're getting. They were substituting in fresh legs, but it's our defense. I believe that was the cause to our lost today. Looking at the box score, we did our job on offense, we put up the numbers. We have never had a team score in the 80's on us this whole year. We're used to keeping it in the 50's and 60's. Coach (Blair) always mentioned, if you keep them to 60 you can win and tonight we didn't do that."
Texas A&M Senior Guard Takia Starks
On reflecting on her four years at Texas A&M ...
"Since we've been here, every year we've been in the tournament and advanced further in the NCAA. This year, we fell kind of short of last year. But, that's okay. Like Coach Blair said, `we'll be back next year.' We had a great run. We had a great four years. It's been fun playing. I love the atmosphere. We just dropped one today."
Arizona State Head Coach Charli Turner Thorne ...
On the game ...
"I'm a little bit speechless to be honest and that doesn't happen very often with me. Overwhelming pride is what I feel right now for our team. The way they've pulled together and stepped up and played incredible team basketball in the NCAA tournament has been more than impressive. Obviously, we took good care of the ball, not giving Texas A&M too much in transition. Got a little nervous early in the second half, but we regrouped and did a great job. We usually don't win giving up 69 points, but this time of year obviously it's just about staying with things, and making adjustments. These guys are getting really, really good at that. Again, I go back to how tough the Pac-10 is and how tough our preseason schedule was. It really, really prepared us for this."
On if she thought her team would win despite giving up 69 points and letting A&M shoot 48 percent ...
"Absolutely not. I would think that the score at halftime would have been the final score. I think both teams are great offensive teams as well and we both obviously struggled to lock each other down, and I think both teams really stepped up on defense. There were a lot of shots made with hands in the face and pull ups, and in the paint. I think there was some great basketball throughout the game. I do think that in the second half, we did a little better job forcing them to a lower shooting percentage. Their top three played 59 of a total 60 minutes in the first half, so our ability to sub and out work them a little bit. Scouting them, they were a great offensive team. You can play great defense as we did at the end of the first half, but (Tanisha) Smith just drained it in our face. Hopefully, people enjoyed it."
