Feb. 26, 2010
Colorado Game Notes in PDF Format 
#12/15 TEXAS A&M (19-7, 7-6) vs. COLORADO (13-13, 3-10)
Game #27
February 27, 2010 • 3:00 p.m. (CT)
Coors Events Center (11,064)
at Boulder, Colo.
Television: None
Radio: Texas A&M Sports Network (KAGC 1510 AM)
Series History: Colorado Leads 10-7
Internet: Free Live Statistics and Live Audio at www.AggieAthletics.com
GAME PREVIEW
The 12th-ranked Texas A&M women's basketball team (19-7, 7-6) will travel to colorful Colorado (13-13, 3-10) for a Saturday, Feb. 27 road tilt in Boulder, Colo. Tipoff between the Aggies and Buffaloes is set for 3 p.m. (CT) as part of a men's and women's basketball doubleheader at the Coors Events Center. A&M will gain a lot of northern exposure with two of its last three Big 12 Conference games of the season being played on the road next to its regular-season finale at Kansas on March 6. The Aggies are still searching for one more league win to assure them of finishing at .500 and reaching postseason play for the fifth consecutive season. They will also be looking for only their third-ever win in Boulder in nine tries. A&M had the last five days to recover from a tough three-game stretch which included a triple threat top 25 lineup of Oklahoma State, Texas and Baylor. The Aggies went 2-1 in their six-day push and will face another unique three-of-a-kind combination this weekend as they face their third-straight "Britney" in Colorado leading scorer Brittany Spears after a close 65-63 loss to a Brittney Griner-led Baylor squad on Feb. 22 and a 58-44 victory over a Brittainey Raven-led Texas squad on Feb. 20. A&M is currently in a two-way tie for fifth in the latest league standings, while Colorado is 11th. The Aggies are essentially only two games out of second place and a strong finish could help them secure one of four top seeds in the upcoming Phillips 66 Big 12 Women's Basketball Championship on March 11-14 in Kansas City.
SCOUTING COLORADO
Colorado recently snapped an eight-game losing stretch in Big 12 Conference play with an 80-79 overtime win at Missouri on Feb. 23. The Buffaloes' three league victories this season include a 63-57 win at Kansas State on Jan. 20 and a 64-48 rout of Mizzou to give them the series sweep of the Tigers. Colorado, like 11 of the league schools in the Big 12, are in a good position to reach postseason play under fifth-year head coach Kathy McConnell-Miller. The Buffs put together an impressive 10-3 non-conference record and have two of the top 15 players in the league in junior forward Brittany Spears and senior guard Bianca Smith who are averaging 18.2 points (fifth) and 13.3 points (14th) per game respectively. CU currently leads the Big 12 in free throw percentage (75.5) behind Smith's team-leading 86.7 accuracy from the charity stripe this season.
PROBABLE STARTING LINEUPS
TEXAS A&M
No. Name (2009-10 Stats)
#4 Sydney Carter, G, 5-6, So. (8.2 ppg, 3.3 apg)
#20 Tyra White, G, 6-0, RS-So. (10.5 ppg, 4.3 rpg)
#22 Tanisha Smith, G/F, 6-0, Sr. (15.0 ppg, 5.3 rpg)
#21 Adaora Elonu, F, 6-1, So. (7.7 ppg, 4.1 rpg)
#2 Damitria Buchanan, F, 6-2, Sr. (2.9 ppg, 4.1 rpg)
COLORADO
No. Name (2009-10 Stats)
#23 Chucky Jeffery, G, 5-10, Fr. (9.7 ppg, 3.4 apg)
#2 Bianca Smith, G, 5-9, Sr. (13.3 ppg, 2.7 rpg)
#1 Alyssa Fressle, G, 5-10, So. (6.9 ppg, 2.7 rpg)
#22 Brittany Spears, G, 6-1, Jr. (18.2 ppg, 8.5 rpg)
#34 Courtney Dunn, F/C, 6-4, Sr. (6.4 ppg, 4.6 rpg)
SERIES HISTORY
Colorado leads 10-7 in the all-time series with Texas A&M. However, the Aggies have won the last six consecutive meetings between the two schools including their second-ever road win in Boulder (72-68) on Jan. 16, 2008. The Buffs have not beaten the Aggies since a 70-58 victory on their home court in 2003-04 under former head coach Ceal Barry. A&M has won by an average margin of 14 points versus CU in its current six-game streak. The Aggies claimed their first-ever win (55-46) in Boulder in the 2006 matchup.
LAST SIX GAMES IN THE SERIES
W, 79-50 on Feb. 14, 2009 in College Station
W, 72-68 on Jan. 16, 2008 in Boulder, Colo.
W, 62-45 on March 7, 2007 in Oklahoma City
W, 74-58 on Jan. 18, 2007 in College Station
W, 55-46 on Jan. 24, 2006 in Boulder, Colo.
W, 72-62 on Feb. 5, 2005 in College Station
COLORADO RECALL
Four players scored in double figures to lead No. 8 Texas A&M to a 79-50 blowout of Colorado before a pink-out crowd of 4,469 on Feb. 14, 2009 at Reed Arena. Tanisha Smith recorded her first career double-double with a team-high 15 points and 10 rebounds. A&M picked up its 10th win of the season at Reed Arena where it claimed its two largest margin of victories in school history against a league opponent. The Aggies defeated CU by 29 points and Nebraska by 43 points. A&M never trailed in the ballgame and led by as many as 32 points with 35 seconds remaining in regulation. The Aggies mounted a 20-4 run on the Buffaloes in the first 10 minutes of play and held them to two buckets and nine percent shooting from the floor in that span. Danielle Gant was perfect in that first half going 5-for-5 from the field and 2-for-2 from the charity stripe for all of her 12 points for the game. Meanwhile, Takia Starks rounded out the double-figure scorers with 11. The Buffaloes were paced by a 25-point and 10-rebound double-double by top player Brittany Spears. CU opened up the second half with nine-straight points to get within 17, but it wasn't enough to overcome its deficit against the Aggies.
THE DISH ON THE AGGIES
Three A&M players are on the verge of turning in 100+ assist seasons which would be a first in the Tanisha Smith. All three rank among the top 12 distributors in the league with Colson averaging 4.4 assists per game which is sixth best followed by Smith in ninth (3.4) and Carter 11th (3.3). In fact, A&M is the only school with three playmakers ranked among the top 15 league leaders in the category. Colson (97) is three assists shy of recording her second consecutive 100+ assist season, while Smith (89) and Carter (86) are 11 and 14 away of the 100-assist benchmark respectively.
20-20 VISION
The Aggies are one win short of registering their fifth-straight 20-win season under seventh-year head coach Gary Blair who has built the women's basketball program into a national contender since his appointment in Aggieland in 2003. It would be the 19th overall for Blair, who collected seven 20-win campaigns at Stephen F. Austin from 1985-1993 and seven at Arkansas from 1993-2003.
Last Five Seasons In The Gary Blair Era
2005-06: 23-9 (NCAA First Round and Big 12 Semifinals)
2006-07: 25-7 (NCAA Second Round and Big 12 Semifinals)
2007-08: 29-8 (NCAA Elite Eight and Big 12 Finals)
2008-09: 27-8 (NCAA Sweet 16 and Big 12 Finals)
2009-10: ??
FROM THE SIDELINES
• Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair is 6-2 lifetime versus Colorado in his 25 years as a Division I head coach. Seven of his eight all-time meetings with the Buffaloes have been played in either the Big 12 regular season or postseason during his time in Aggieland (6-1).
• The Aggies are 3-1 against Big 12 North competition this season with home wins over Iowa State, Missouri and Kansas State, while the Buffaloes are 0-5 versus the Big 12 South. A&M has only won 11 times on the road against all six north schools combined since the league's inception in 1996-97 including twice at CU, never at Iowa State, four times at Kansas, twice at Kansas State, twice at Mizzou and once at Nebraska.
• Colorado senior guard Bianca Smith is a Houston area native who used to attend Aggie Basketball camps as a youngster. "I love that kid to death," Coach Blair said. "At the time, when she graduated from high school, we just didn't have a need for her, because of a kid named (A&M all-time leading scorer) Takia Starks who was pretty darn good. She's had a good career at Colorado and sat out a year transferring from Tulsa where Coach McConnell-Miller used to be. She's a great shooting guard. When she gets hot at the three-point line, she's as good as anyone."
BAYLOR RECAP
Baylor 65, Texas A&M 63
• For the third time this season, Texas A&M used the starting lineup of Tanisha Smith, Damitria Buchanan (2-1).
• Tanisha Smith registered a career-high 21 points in five all-time games played against Baylor since joining the Aggies as a junior transfer in 2008-09. It topped her previous career-high of 19 points versus the Lady Bears on Jan. 21, 2009. Smith has now reached the 20-point plateau on six occasions in her career and fifth time this season. She also tied a career-high with a team-leading seven assists in the ballgame.
• Senior co-captain Damitria Buchanan tied a league career-best with eight points in a career-high 38 minutes of action versus Baylor. Her previous league high was eight points versus Nebraska during her junior campaign on Feb. 8, 2009.
• Sydney Carter has now turned in double figures in four of her last five Big 12 Conference outings including 10 against the Lady Bears. Danielle Adams also registered her 21st double-digit game of the season with 10 points before fouling out for the first time this season with 5:16 remaining in regulation.
• The Aggies saw the sixth-largest crowd in school history with 7,233 fans in attendance versus Baylor at Reed Arena. Three of A&M's top six all-time largest crowds have been against the Lady Bears including its No. 1 and No. 2 all-time crowds.
• A&M made the second-fewest turnovers in a first half this season versus Baylor (2) behind one first-half turnover at No. 19 Cal on Dec. 6.
AGGIE NOTABLE QUOTABLES
"They are always a difficult team. Right now, they are trying to get to the WNIT. They are at 13-13 and to do that, you have to finish .500. They need to win two out of their last three ballgames to assure them of a berth and it doesn't matter what happens in the Big 12 Tournament. (Colorado head coach) Kathy McConnell-Miller has always played us very well there in Boulder and we've been able to take care of business at home pretty easy in the series. They have Brittany Spears who is one of the 10 best players in our league. She is a kid who is similar to a Brittainey Raven, a Danielle McCray or a Tanisha Smith - just a prolific scorer and rebounder. They run a lot of things through her and we will have our hands full with defending her. It's another must-win game for us. When you are on the road and playing a team who is `supposedly' near the bottom of the league, you have to be ready to play. The respect we have for other coaches in this league is immense. They just went to Missouri, were behind the whole ballgame and won in overtime. Now, it puts them in good shape for postseason play. I hope she (McConnell-Miller) makes it, but not at the expense of A&M." - Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair on Colorado
"I thought we did a good job battling in the Baylor game. There were some points in the game, where we couldn't get stops when we needed them and we would make some offensive runs. We just didn't get the key stops we needed. We were expecting (Brittney) Griner to get hers and that's pretty much a given. We didn't do the best job of containing everyone else on their team and that's us being accountable on the defensive end. They (Colorado) are a good team and it will be another battle. It's tough to go up there and play, especially with the altitude. I remember during my freshman year, when I went out in the game, I was huffing and puffing in the first two minutes, because you're not really used to it. This time around, we are going to make sure we are hydrated like we did prior to the New Mexico game this season. We just have to fight through it. Our game plan is to go out there, work hard and take care of business." - Texas A&M Junior Point Guard Sydney Colson on learning from the Baylor game and moving on to the Colorado game
"Of course, it was a hard loss for us. Those are the kind of games where we played hard, but we just didn't come out on top. We are not satisfied, but we were proud with our effort at least. As far as going on the road, it's going to be tough playing up there with the high altitude. Brittany Spears is a great player. She can do it all. She can shoot, she can penetrate and she can create offense for her team. Everyone on their team can shoot the three. We will definitely be mindful of defending their three-point shooters on Saturday." - Texas A&M Sophomore Point Guard Sydney Carter on rebounding from the Baylor loss and heading to Colorado
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 Coors Events Center alongside color analyst and former player A'Quonesia Franklin on KAGC 1510 AM. A live audio feed will also be available on www.AggieAthletics.com.