Texas A&M
23-6,11-5
Baylor
24-5,12-4
Second-Half Rally By Aggies Falls Short Against No. 5 Baylor
Mar 07, 2009 | Women's Basketball
March 7, 2009
Baylor Box Score in PDF Format 
Post Game Audio [mp3]:
Head Coach Blair
G/F Gant
WACO, Texas - A valiant second-half rally by No. 8 Texas A&M fell short as No. 5 Baylor held on for a 64-60 victory Saturday night before a sellout crowd of 10,118 at the Ferrell Center.
The Aggies finished the regular season with a 23-6 overall record and an 11-5 mark in Big 12 Conference play. A&M tied for third place with Iowa State (23-7, 11-5) in the final league standings and will enter next week's Phillips 66 Big 12 Women's Basketball Championship on March 12-15 in Oklahoma City as the No. 4 seed. The Aggies will face the winner of either fifth-seeded Kansas State (23-6, 10-6) or 12th-seeded Colorado (11-17, 3-13) in the Big 12 quarterfinals on Friday, March 13 at 1:30 p.m. (CT).
A&M trailed by double digits at halftime, 34-24, but a furious second-half comeback led by junior Tanisha Smith (Kansas City, Mo.) and senior All-America candidate Danielle Gant (Oklahoma City, Okla.) tied the game at 44-44 with 11:23 remaining in regulation.
For the final 11 minutes of the game, neither team led by more than five points, but Baylor's Jessica Morrow hit three field goals, including a pair of threes and was a perfect 4-for-4 at the free throw line over the final 3:15 to hold off the Aggies. Morrow led the Lady Bears (24-5, 12-4) with a season-high 23 points followed by 13 from fellow senior Jhasmin Player.
Gant scored 11 points in the second half and finished with a team-high 16 points. She also had a career-and game-high six steals and pulled down 13 rebounds for her sixth double-double of the season and the 18th of her career. Smith scored 12 in the second half, including 10 in the first seven minutes, and finished with 14 points, seven rebounds and a team-best six assists with one turnover.
POSTGAME NOTES
• For the 12th time this season, Texas A&M used the starting lineup of Tanisha Smith, Tanisha Smith registered her 13th game this season in double figures with 14 against the Lady Bears. It marked the second time of her career to reach double-digits versus BU next to a team-and career-high 19 points on Jan. 21.
POSTGAME QUOTES
Texas A&M Head Coach Gary Blair
On the game ...
"We fought back awfully hard in the second half to get back in the ballgame. We had a one-point and a three-point ballgame with about three minutes to go and they controlled the last 10 minutes due to their good play and our misfortune. Our kids took coaching at the half. We came back and we started to run our offense better. We started to get the ball to our playmakers instead of everyone thinking they could score at any time. Sometimes, you are open for a reason. You have to realize that when you are 10 points down, every possession is major, particularly if you are not turning it over like we do against some other teams. We were lucky to get 16 off of them (Baylor). But, we fought our way back in it again in the second half. Give our kids some credit. We started to get (Danielle) Gant where we wanted her and Tanisha (Smith) was doing a better job in the second half. (Jessica) Morrow was doing a great job defensively on (Takia) Starks and sometimes, it's hard to shoot over her."
On Baylor's senior class and heading into the Big 12 Tournament ...
"I thought their seniors were magnificent. When you look at (Rachel) Allison, she played tremendous with great heart. She was doing a good job on (Danielle) Gant, by bodying her up and making her foul. (Jhasmin) Player is like her last name, she is just a basketball player. She competes so hard and is a basketball player that does the little things. (Jessica) Morrow hits two wide-open threes on us. These games are going to come down like this at all times. I wish we could have been in the same bracket as Baylor at the Big 12 Tournament. With the tiebreaker, we are going to lose to Iowa State and get the fourth seed. We have to go out there and play our first game and take care of it one at a time. I believe in the Big 12 Tournament. Certain coaches don't believe in it. But, this is what March Madness is all about. It gives everyone an opportunity to play their way in one way or the other. I love the tournament, maybe because we won it last year. Right now, we are trying to get better as a basketball team. We have work to do and made some silly fouls tonight."
Texas A&M Senior Guard/Forward Danielle Gant
On the down-to-the-wire Baylor series ...
"We knew it was their senior night and we knew we were not going to come in here and just win the game. We knew it would come down to the end, just like it did tonight. We knew it would be a battle on the offensive and defensive ends for both teams. We came in knowing that we were going to play a great game against a great team."
On the team's second-half run ...
"We played as a team on defense. On offense, we executed the plays very well. In the first half, we stood still. In the second half, we constantly moved and ran great plays."
On the team's mindset heading into the Big 12 Tournament ...
"We are going to go out and play hard just like we did tonight. We are not going to fall back, because we lost this game here at Baylor. We are going to go out strong in the Big 12 Tournament."
Baylor Head Coach Kim Mulkey
On the game ...
"They (the seniors) left everything they had on that court tonight. Had we lost tonight, win or lose, I can feel a lot better in the effort that was given tonight by our team than in the Kansas game. There was a lot at stake tonight, probably more so for A&M, because we knew we would be either a No. 2 or No. 3 seed (in the Big 12 Tournament)."
On Baylor and A&M ...
"I was shocked that both teams were predicted as low as they were predicted to finish (in the preseason coaches poll). It doesn't surprise me that both teams exceeded those expectations this season. I thought it was a very good game in front of a great crowd tonight."
