Feb. 16, 2010
#15/15 TEXAS A&M (17-6, 5-5) vs. #17/17 OKLAHOMA STATE (18-6, 6-4)
Game #24
February 17, 2010 • 7:00 p.m. (CT)
Gallagher-Iba Arena (13,611)
at Stillwater, Okla.
Television: None
Radio: Texas A&M Sports Network (KZNE 1150 AM)
Series History: Oklahoma State Leads 21-17
Internet: Free Live Statistics and Live Audio at www.AggieAthletics.com
GAME PREVIEW
The 15th-ranked Texas A&M women's basketball team (17-6, 5-5) prepares for an important midweek clash with No. 17 Oklahoma State (18-6, 6-4) on Wednesday, Feb. 17 at historic Gallagher-Iba Arena in Stillwater, Okla. Tipoff between the Aggies and Cowgirls is set for 7 p.m. (CT). Every game is critical from here on out and Wednesday's matchup will be key for A&M prior to facing one of its toughest stretches of the season head-on with three consecutive contests against top 25 competition in a span of six days. The short turnaround will test the Aggies who currently round out the top six teams in the latest Big 12 Conference standings with a 5-5 mark in league play. Two of this week's opponents, OSU and archrival Texas, are ahead of A&M by a mere game or two in what has turned into a tight conference race. The Aggies are still searching for their second Big 12 road win of the season, but like every team in the league, the Cowgirls have held court with a 12-2 home record to date. A&M's final six-game stretch includes nationally-televised home matchups with the No. 12 Longhorns on Saturday, Feb. 20 in the State Farm Lone Star Showdown on Fox Sports Net and No. 18 Baylor on Monday, Feb. 22 on ESPN2 Big Monday.
A LOOK AT THE COWGIRLS
Oklahoma State is currently on a three-game skid with back-to-back home losses to unranked Texas Tech (57-65) on Feb. 13 and then No. 13 Oklahoma (66-77) in its annual Bedlam rivalry game on Feb. 6. It marked the Cowgirls' first two home losses of the season at Gallagher-Iba Arena. In fact, they have not won in league play since their Jan. 31 meeting with Texas A&M in College Station which was followed by a 88-67 road loss at unbeaten Nebraska on Feb. 3. OSU is 3-5 against nationally-ranked competition this year. They are paced by senior All-American point guard Andrea Riley who is averaging 25.6 points and 6.9 assists per game which ranks third and fourth nationally respectively. The Cowgirls have also protected the ball well averaging only 13.5 turnovers a game which is the fifth-fewest among NCAA leaders this season.
PROBABLE STARTING LINEUPS
TEXAS A&M
No. Name (2009-10 Stats)
#4 Sydney Carter, G, 5-6, So. (8.0 ppg, 3.2 apg)
#20 Tyra White, G, 6-0, RS-So. (10.5 ppg, 4.3 rpg)
#22 Tanisha Smith, G/F, 6-0, Sr. (14.9 ppg, 5.6 rpg)
#23 Danielle Adams, F/C, 6-1, Jr. (16.1 ppg, 5.7 rpg)
#2 Damitria Buchanan, F, 6-2, Sr. (2.8 ppg, 4.2 rpg)
OKLAHOMA STATE
No. Name (2009-10 Stats)
#10 Andrea Riley, G, 5-5, Sr. (25.6 ppg, 6.9 apg)
#00 Lakyn Garrison, G, 5-5, Jr. (6.3 ppg, 2.0 rpg)
#24 Precious Robinson, F, 6-0, Jr. (8.5 ppg, 8.2 rpg)
#1 Tegan Cunningham, F, 6-1, Sr. (17.1 ppg, 7.2 rpg)
#33 Megan Byford, C, 6-2, Sr. (3.4 ppg, 4.3 rpg)
SERIES NOTES
Oklahoma State leads 21-17 in the all-time series with Texas A&M. The Aggies have won 11 out of the last 13 meetings between the two Big 12 South rivals including the last five-straight when playing on the road in Stillwater. There have been many close games in the series as of late with seven of the last eight contests being decided by 10 points or less including each of the last three played out in Gallagher-Iba Arena.
LAST 13 GAMES IN THE SERIES
L, 63-67 (-4) on Jan. 31, 2010 in College Station
W, 79-49 (+30) on March 5, 2009 in College Station
W, 60-50 (+10) on Jan. 24, 2009 in Stillwater, Okla.
W, 64-59 (+5) on March 15, 2008 in Kansas City
W, 63-57 (+6) on Feb. 27, 2008 in Stillwater, Okla.
L, 58-61 (-3) on Jan. 19, 2008 in College Station
W, 62-60 (+2) on Feb. 17, 2007 in Stillwater, Okla.
W, 64-63 (+1) on Jan. 30, 2007 in College Station
W, 65-47 (+18) on March 1, 2006 in Stillwater, Okla.
W, 74-52 (+22) on Jan. 4, 2006 in College Station
W, 75-61 (+14) on Feb. 23, 2005 in College Station
W, 49-44 (+5) on Jan. 12, 2005 in Stillwater, Okla.
W, 65-52 (+13) on Feb. 4, 2004 in College Station
LAST TIME OUT
Andrea Riley shook off early foul trouble to score 31 points and rally No. 15 Oklahoma State to a 67-63 win over No. 8 Texas A&M on Jan. 31 in College Station. The Cowgirls trailed by as many as 14 points in the second half before Riley, who had three fouls early, led the comeback with her 27 second-half points. The Aggies led by three before a 3-pointer by Riley tied it at 61-all. She got a steal on Texas A&M's ensuing possession and Precious Robinson gave Oklahoma State its first lead with a layup with 1:03 left. Robinson added a pair of free throws with 30 seconds remaining to push the lead to 65-61. Tanisha Smith made a layup with 10 seconds left to cut the lead to two, but Riley hit two free throws with eight seconds remaining to secure the win. Texas A&M led by 10 points before the Cowgirls went on a 11-3 run capped by a 3-pointer by Ally Clardy to cut the lead to 55-53 with about six minutes remaining. A&M scored the next four points before Riley scored five straight to get Oklahoma State within 59-58. Texas A&M was led by Danielle Adams who had 24 points and Sydney Carter added 12. It was an ugly game with the teams combining for 39 turnovers. Oklahoma State had 21 and A&M finished with 18. Oklahoma State cut the lead to five points with a 3-pointer early in the second half, but Adams scored five straight points to stretch the lead to 33-23. Tegan Cunningham had 18 points and 14 rebounds for Oklahoma State and Robinson finished with 10 points. Texas A&M got off to a quick start and was up 15-4 with 12 minutes left in the first half. The Cowgirls scored five straight points, including four by Riley, to get within six points about eight minutes before halftime. But Riley got her third foul seconds later, sending her to the bench for the rest of the half. The Aggies were ahead by five when they went on a 7-0 run capped by a 3-pointer by Adams to stretch the lead to 26-14 about three minutes before halftime. The Cowgirls scored six of the last eight points of the first half to cut A&M's halftime lead to 28-20. Oklahoma State's 20 first-half points were its fewest of the season.
AGGIES IN THE RPI
The Aggies still hold the nation's seventh-and 11th-best strength of schedule according to CollegeRPI.com and The Jeff Sagarin/CBN Women's College Basketball Ratings as of Feb. 16. A&M is rated No. 11 in this week's NCAA Women's Basketball RPI report and No. 10 and No. 11 in the Sagarin and CollegeRPI.com indexes respectively. The Big 12 is rated the No. 1 conference in the country ahead of the SEC, Big Ten, ACC and Big East with nine of its 12-member schools in the top 50 and three in the top 10. Nine of A&M's opponents this season are currently ranked in both top 25 polls including Duke, Gonzaga and TCU.
FROM THE SIDELINES
• Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair is 18-7 all-time versus Oklahoma State in his 25 years as a Division I head coach. He is 10-4 against the Cowgirls since his arrival in Aggieland in 2003-04. Blair and Oklahoma State head coach Kurt Budke are both disciples of Hall of Fame Louisiana Tech head coach and current Baylor assistant coach Leon Barmore. Blair served as a La. Tech assistant coach from 1980-85, while Budke was an associate head coach from 2000-02 and took over the storied Lady Techster program from 2002-05 after Barmore's retirement.
• Texas A&M freshman forward/center Diamond Ashmore (Midwest City, Okla.) returns home to the Sooner State for the second time this season and will have members of both her mother's and father's side of the family in attendance at the game on Wednesday night in Stillwater. Ashmore is the second Oklahoma native to grace the Aggies' roster in the Danielle Gant (2006-09).
• The Aggie defense has held Oklahoma State's Andrea Riley to a career 32.4 percent shooting percentage (44-of-136) from the floor in seven regular-season games played between the two schools since her freshman campaign in 2006-07. Her fewest points ever scored against A&M was a 1-of-5 shooting night with eight points on Jan. 30, 2007 in College Station.
KANSAS STATE RECAP
Texas A&M 69, Kansas State 63
• For the second time this season, Texas A&M used the starting lineup of Tanisha Smith, Damitria Buchanan (1-1). Carter started at point guard in place of Sydney Colson who sat out her third game of the season with a stress reaction in her left fibula.
• With the win, the Aggies claimed their third consecutive and seventh overall victory in the all-time series versus Kansas State. They snapped a two-game losing stretch in Big 12 Conference play and are now 3-1 versus Big 12 North opponents this season.
• Sydney Carter turned in her second-straight contest in double figures with a career-and game-high 24 points against the Wildcats. Carter also dished out a career-high tying six assists with just one turnover and knocked down a career-high four three pointers in the ballgame. Both of Carter's best career games in Big 12 play have been against Kansas State. She also scored a previous career-high of 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the floor and 3-of-5 accuracy from beyond the three-point line on March 1, 2009 in Manhattan, Kan. It marked the 10th time this season in which an A&M player has reached 20-or-more points in a contest.
• Tanisha Smith has been a rebounding machine grabbing six-or-more boards in five out of the last six Big 12 games for the Aggies. She has now turned in back-to-back double-double performances, the fourth of her career, with 13 points and a game-high 10 rebounds versus Kansas State.
• Kansas State shot an opponent season-high 11 three-pointers in the ballgame which marked a Reed Arena opponent single-game record. It tied the all-time Reed Arena record of 11 three-pointers made by Texas A&M versus Iowa State on Jan. 12, 2002 and against Mercer on Nov. 16, 2006. The Wildcats also put up a Reed Arena opponent record 34 three-point attempts in the game surpassing 26 by Santa Clara on Dec. 1, 2002.
• For the fourth-straight season, A&M donned its pink specially-made adidas uniforms and 4,861 fans at Reed Arena were decked out in pink T-Shirts in support of breast cancer awareness and the Aggies' BTHO Breast Cancer campaign benefiting the Kay Yow Foundation.
AGGIE NOTABLE QUOTABLES
"We've been able to slow down her shooting percentage every time we've played her. Over the nine or so games we've played, she cannot be shooting more 33 percent against us. The trouble is - how many shots she puts up. Also, when you put her on the free throw line, she is going to shoot 90 percent of them. She makes her shots when she has to have them to help her team win. In the last two minutes of a ballgame, she's as good as anyone in the country. We just need to make sure we are in the ballgame in the last two minutes. If we can do a better job of taking (Tegan) Cunningham away and trying to make Riley miss, we will have a good chance. When Riley misses, it's usually a long rebound and we have to do a better job of rebounding than in our last game against them." - Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair on guarding Oklahoma State All-American Andrea Riley
"You are not being overlooked, if you are Texas A&M, and you've accomplished what we have over the last couple of years. We've gotten everybody's best game this year. Kansas State and Missouri, the last place team in the league, came in here and played us tremendously (in College Station). There is no bottom to this league. It's time for us to have a sense of urgency. It's time for us to figure out that we need to get to the NCAA Tournament first, before we can win a national championship. Unless, we can get eight (league) wins, we are not in the NCAA Tournament." - Coach Blair on the team's recent losses and being overlooked by opponents in Big 12 Conference play
"Definitely, a win, would give us more confidence on the road. We've been struggling on the road this year and it's always critical to win on the road, not only for our RPI, but for our confidence. We have been really working hard on dribble penetration and rebounding this week in practice. We didn't do a good job rebounding the last time we played Oklahoma State. Right now, we are trying to play together and find that chemistry. They (OSU) are definitely going to have more confidence coming into the game on Wednesday night, knowing that they beat as at home, and they are going to be playing at home now. Home games are always your `rah-rah' games. I don't think they will under estimate us. They will be prepared for us just as well as we will be prepared for them." - Texas A&M sophomore point guard Sydney Carter on going on the road again and the Oklahoma State rematch
"It's always special to go back home to Oklahoma. Now, that I'm an Aggie, I really want to bring it against teams I grew up watching and push my teammates to play harder (against these teams). My whole family will be there and I'm excited to see them. As a team, we need to play together, have more chemistry and play both halves of the game." - Texas A&M freshman forward/center Diamond Ashmore on returning home to the Sooner State and playing Oklahoma State
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 Gallagher-Iba Arena alongside color analyst and former player A'Quonesia Franklin on KZNE 1150 AM. A live audio feed will also be available on www.AggieAthletics.com.