Jan. 8, 2010
Texas Game Notes in PDF Format 
#10/10 TEXAS A&M (12-1, 0-0) vs. #15/20 TEXAS (11-3, 0-0)
Game #14
January 9, 2010 • 5:00 p.m. (CT)
The Frank Erwin Center (16,775)
at Austin, Texas
Television: FSNSW
Radio: Texas A&M Sports Network (KZNE 1150 AM)
Series History: Texas Leads 58-17
Internet: Free Live Statistics and Live Audio at www.AggieAthletics.com
GAME PREVIEW
After a successful 12-1 non-conference start, the 10th-ranked Texas A&M women's basketball team looks to carry that momentum into what will be one of its toughest stretches yet of the season. The Aggies will commence Big 12 Conference competition on the road at No. 15/20-ranked Texas (11-3) in the first edition of the State Farm Lone Star Showdown between the two in-state rivals on Saturday, Jan. 9 at 5 p.m. (CT) at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas. In fact, A&M will play three of its first six league games away from the friendly confines of Reed Arena at UT, Oklahoma and Baylor who were all picked to finish in the top five of the Big 12 in the preseason coaches poll. The Aggies have prepared well for this upcoming challenge going 6-1 in their seven games contested on the road or at a neutral site against the likes of Auburn, California, TCU, Arizona State and New Mexico to name a few. They currently rank among the top 10 teams in the country and league in scoring offense (83.3), field-goal percentage (48.6), three-point field goal percentage (42.6), assists per game (19.2) and turnover margin (+7.6). A&M is an undefeated 3-0 this season against top 25 opponents.
REGIONAL TELEVISION COVERAGE
Texas A&M will appear on television for the third time this season on Saturday. Play-by-play announcer Kevin Eschenfelder and color analyst Chris Plonsky will call the action live on the Longhorn Sports Network (LSN) which will be carried in the state of Texas only on Fox Sports Southwest.
AGGIES IN BIG 12 OPENERS
Texas A&M is 4-9 all-time in Big 12 Conference openers since the league's inception in 1996-97. A&M will have now played on the road nine out of the last 14 tip-off campaigns of Big 12 women's basketball with a 3-5 record to date. Last season, A&M opened up league play with a 62-56 win at Missouri on Jan. 10, 2009. The Aggies and Longhorns will meet in a Big 12 opener for only the second time in league history since a 62-49 road loss at Texas during the 2000-01 season under former head coaches Peggie Gillom and Jody Conradt.
SCOUTING THE LONGHORNS
Texas is currently on a six-game winning streak with notable victories over SEC and ACC opponents in Ole Miss (64-58) on Dec. 16 and Miami (76-65) on Dec. 29 to capture the Wyndham Miami Holiday Tournament title. Two of the Longhorns' three losses of the season have come against a pair of top 10 teams in defending national champion Connecticut (83-58) on Nov. 17 and Tennessee (78-58) on Dec. 6. They will face five ranked foes in their first six games of the Big 12 slate with a road date with undefeated Nebraska up next on Jan. 12. Texas currently ranks among the top 10 NCAA leaders averaging 6.4 blocks per game behind the post presence of sophomore Ashley Gayle (3.1 bpg) and freshman phenom Cokie Reed (1.3 bpg).
PROBABLE STARTING LINEUPS
TEXAS A&M
No. Name (2009-10 Stats)
#51 Sydney Colson, G, 5-8, Jr. (7.2 ppg, 5.3 apg)
#20 Tyra White, G, 6-0, RS-So. (11.0 ppg, 3.1 rpg)
#22 Tanisha Smith, G/F, 6-0, Sr. (17.1 ppg, 4.5 rpg)
#23 Danielle Adams, F/C, 6-1, Jr. (14.8 ppg, 4.4 rpg)
#2 Damitria Buchanan, F, 6-2, Sr. (3.8 ppg, 4.6 rpg)
TEXAS
No. Name (2009-10 Stats)
#4 Erika Arriaran, G, 5-10, Sr. (8.3 ppg, 2.6 rpg)
#10 Brittainey Raven, G, 6-0, Sr. (15.1 ppg, 5.1 rpg)
#00 Earnesia Williams, F, 6-1, RS-Sr. (5.9 ppg, 3.4 rpg)
#5 Kathleen Nash, F, 6-2, Jr. (14.0 ppg, 7.4 rpg)
#22 Ashley Gayle, C, 6-4, So. (6.8 ppg, 7.2 rpg)
INSIDE THE RIVALRY
Texas holds a 58-17 advantage in the all-time series with Texas A&M. However, the Aggies have won seven out of the last eight meetings between the two archrivals and swept the Longhorns in the home-and-home series in 2005-06, 2007-08 and 2008-09. Of its 17 overall victories in the series, A&M has won only five of them on the road and 10 overall in Big 12 Conference play. Additionally, the Aggies have won three of the last four in Austin.
LAST EIGHT GAMES IN THE SERIES
W, 73-53 on Feb. 8, 2006 in Austin
W, 79-67 on Feb. 22, 2006 in College Station
L, 45-64 on Jan. 21, 2007 in Austin
W, 67-60 on Feb. 28, 2007 in College Station
W, 66-57 on Feb. 9, 2008 in College Station
W, 65-50 on Feb. 24, 2008 in Austin
W, 68-54 on Jan. 28, 2009 in Austin
W, 76-65 on Feb. 21, 2009 in College Station
STATE FARM LONE STAR SHOWDOWN STANDINGS
Last season, Texas A&M held on to the State Farm Lone Star Showdown trophy, its second-straight claim to the hardware in the five-year history of the sponsored-rivalry series. The women's basketball team swept UT to earn a full point toward the final point count in 2008-09. A&M won the overall campaign by a tied score of 9.5 to 9.5 with contributions from soccer, men's cross country, men's basketball, women's indoor track and field, men's tennis, men's golf, women's golf, softball and men's and women's outdoor track and field. The Longhorns currently lead 5.0 to 1.0 in the latest Showdown standings with A&M's lone point earned in the fall by soccer (1.0). For complete results, log onto: www.lonestarshowdown.net.
TEXAS RETAKE
No. 11 Texas A&M claimed its fifth-straight victory over No. 12 Texas, 76-65, before a crowd of 5,840 on Feb. 21, 2009 at Reed Arena. The Aggies also turned in their fourth-straight 20-win campaign under Texas A&M head coach Tanisha Smith to take a 31-27 lead into halftime. A&M would continue to wear Texas down in the second half with its pressure defense and forced the Longhorns to a season-high 29 turnovers in the ballgame. Adaora Elonu came off the bench in the second half of play in relief of Gant and turned in back-to-back layups to give the Aggies their biggest lead of the contest and they never looked back. Elonu finished with a league career-high 10 points followed by Smith with 11 and Sydney Colson with 10.
FROM THE SIDELINES
• Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair is an even 7-7 lifetime versus Texas in his 25 years as a Division I head coach. All seven of his career victories against the Longhorns have come during his time in Aggieland.
• The Texas A&M and Texas rosters look similar in geography with the majority of each team's players hailing from the Lone Star State as well as from Missouri, California and Oklahoma. Aggie freshman forward/guard Cierra Windham and Longhorn senior guard Erika Arriaran both starred under head coach Rick Thompson at Inland Empire girls' basketball powerhouse Norco High School near Riverside, Calif. Windham was in the eighth grade practicing alongside Arriaran, then a senior and the State Farm/WBCA and Parade Magazine National Player of the Year.
• Texas A&M associate head coach Vic Schaefer, Class of '84, reminisced about his fondest Texas A&M versus Texas memories growing up in an Aggie family at the team's recent fan luncheon. They included a 1986 Aggie football win on Thanksgiving Day at Memorial Stadium, A&M sweeping the Longhorns to capture a share of the Big 12 regular-season title in 2007 and legendary Texas head coach and Hall of Famer Jody Conradt shaking his hand postgame and commenting that, "I'd rather go to the dentist, than play against you guys" in 2005.
• Danielle Adams, a former Show-Me State prep standout out of Lee's Summitt High School in Kansas City, will reunite with Texas sophomore guard Yvonne Anderson, who is the daughter of Missouri men's basketball head coach Mike Anderson. Both attended Missouri Women's Basketball camps as youngsters and are pals off the court.
LAMAR RECAP
Texas A&M 90, Lamar 57
• For the second time this season, Texas A&M used the starting lineup of Tanisha Smith, Damitria Buchanan (2-0). It was the third career start for Adams.
• With the victory, the Aggies improve to 14-9 in the all-time series with Lamar and have now won the last six consecutive meetings between the two in-state schools. Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair remains an undefeated 7-0 lifetime against the Lady Cardinals.
• For the third-straight season, the Aggies have turned in 12-win campaigns in non-conference play. They went 12-1 in 2009-10, 12-1 in 2008-09 and 12-2 in 2007-08. They have also won 42 consecutive non-conference games at Reed Arena since Coach Blair's inaugural season in 2003-04.
• Danielle Adams has now led the team in scoring in three consecutive contests versus Prairie View A&M (19), New Mexico (19) and Lamar (17). She has reached double figures in 11-of-12 games played this season.
• A&M brought down a season-high 56 rebounds against the Lady Cardinals. Tyra White and Kelsey Assarian reset career highs in the rebound department with eight apiece. All but three of the 16 Aggies who entered the ballgame contributed to the board column.
• For the third consecutive game, the Aggies scored 40-or-more of its total points in the paint (52) versus Lamar. In addition, they have reached 90-or-more total points on four different occasions this season including against No. 9 Duke (95), Stephen F. Austin (106) and North Texas (108).
AGGIE NOTABLE QUOTABLES
"The road schedule that we have played so far, will hopefully get us ready for what we are fixin' to face in Texas, Oklahoma, Baylor and Nebraska on the road. We will play in front of great crowds at all four places. We haven't even talked about the other teams. Those four to open up the season is pretty scary. If you look at it as a whole, it's not a lot of fun, because you have Iowa State and Texas Tech coming in here at Reed Arena. We've been a good road team all year, except for the last five minutes at TCU. This is the best team that we've played since Duke. Texas has played a good schedule and Gail (Goestenkors) is pleased with her team. They are healthy and are playing 10 kids in double-figure minutes. We will see all 10 of them on Saturday. They have a great rotation. They are sort of like us - no kid is playing over 30 minutes per game. They have started a lot of different lineups this season. We are very similar to Texas in a lot of ways, but Texas is playing harder this year for longer periods of time. Our numbers are very similar to what they were last year and we are playing an even harder schedule this year. We are giving up a 36 percent field-goal percentage, 29 percent from the three and 60 points a game. Two good teams are going to come to play on Saturday. I'm pretty sure it's going to be a close game." - Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair on opening Big 12 Conference play on the road at Texas
"I've only been here for two years, but I know it's a heated rivalry - Aggies and Longhorns. But, every game, you have to come in with the same intensity and work hard, no matter who you are playing be it Texas or Baylor. You just have to go out there and play for the W. Our non-conference schedule has prepared us for this next chapter of the season. We played a lot of teams who were ranked in the top 25 or went to the NCAA Tournament last year, so they helped us get ready for Big 12 play. Watching film of those games and getting better on the practice court has prepared us well." - Preseason All-Big 12 honorable mention Tanisha Smith on opening up league play at Texas
"I'm excited about playing in this league. The Big 12 is one of the toughest conferences in the nation right now. I am looking forward to playing Texas on Saturday and then Baylor and Oklahoma later in the month. We have been working on our defense over the holidays. We just need to get a few nicks corrected in order to be ready for Big 12 play. I'm looking forward to the rivalry. Ever since I was recruited and came to Aggieland, I've been hearing about the Texas A&M versus Texas rivalry for awhile. I'm just excited to be a part of it now after seeing how exciting these games are." - Preseason Big 12 Newcomer of the Year Danielle Adams on having the chance to play in the Big 12 and the rivalry matchup this weekend
AGGIES ON THE RADIO
All Texas A&M women's basketball games can be heard via a radio broadcast on the Texas A&M Sports Network. Play-by-play announcer Mike Wright will call the action live from The Frank Erwin Center alongside color analyst Tap Bentz on KZNE 1150 AM. A live audio feed will also be available on www.AggieAthletics.com.