March 13, 2010
Big 12 Semifinals Game Notes in PDF Format 
#4 TEXAS A&M (23-7) vs. #1 NEBRASKA (30-0)
Big 12 Championship Semifinals
Game #31
March 13, 2010 • Noon (CT)
Municipal Auditorium (9,308)
at Kansas City, Mo.
Television: Fox Sports Net
Radio: Texas A&M Sports Network (KZNE 1150 AM)
Series History: Nebraska Leads 14-7
Internet: Free Live Statistics at www.Big12Sports.com
GAME PREVIEW
The 11th-ranked and fourth-seeded Texas A&M women's basketball team (23-7) will face undefeated, third-ranked and top-seeded Nebraska (30-0) in a pivotal rematch in the semifinals of the 2010 Phillips 66 Women's Basketball Championship on Saturday, March 13 at noon (CT) at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo. The Aggies, who have won seven out of their last eight, saw the Cornhuskers 10 games ago which resulted in a tough 71-60 loss on the road on Feb. 6 in Lincoln, Neb. Since then, A&M has been clicking on all cylinders offensively and defensively averaging 75.3 points per game and holding opponents to under 60 points a game including a 37.0 percentage from the floor and conference-leading 27.3 accuracy from beyond the three-point arc. The Aggies are primed and ready to make a strong tournament run with the help of their inside and outside game as well as one of the league's deepest rosters with a nine-player rotation. Nebraska and A&M are currently the two highest-ranked teams hailing from the Big 12 and rank No. 1 and No. 2 in the conference in scoring offense and scoring margin respectively. The Aggies, however, are in a league of their own, leading the Big 12 field in assists (16.0 avg), steals (10.0 avg), turnover margin (+6.1) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.00). They have played the nation's fourth-toughest schedule and seek their third-straight Big 12 championship game appearance on Sunday.
BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP COVERAGE
The Big 12 Championship quarterfinals, semifinals and championship game will be aired before a nationally-televised audience exclusively on Fox Sports Net. Play-by-play announcer Brent Stover, color analyst Debbie Antonelli and sideline reporter Brenda VanLengen will call Texas A&M's semifinal game versus Nebraska live from Municipal Auditorium on FSN. Check your local listings.
AGGIE SEMI-SWEET
The Aggies will make their fifth consecutive appearance (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010) in the Big 12 Championship semifinals extending all the way back to the 2006 Tournament held at Reunion Arena in Dallas. A&M is one of only two league schools to make five-straight semifinal appearances next to Iowa State in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002. The Aggies are the only Big 12 team to make consecutive semifinal appearances over the last five years. The Aggies are 2-2 all-time when playing in the semifinals. They also boast the best tournament record of any league school (8-3) over the last five years along with third-seeded Oklahoma (8-2). A&M won its first-ever Big 12 postseason title in 2008 in Kansas City and became the first No. 4 seed in league history to do so. The Aggies are currently 9-12 all-time in Big 12 Championship play and made back-to-back championship game appearances in 2008 and 2009.
A LOOK AT THE HUSKERS
Nebraska matched the Big 12 record for longest winning streak in conference history and snapped a four-game losing streak in league postseason tournament play with a 63-46 victory over ninth-seeded Kansas State on Friday in quarterfinal action. Big 12 Player of the Year Kelsey Griffin led the Huskers with 24 points and 10 rebounds for her 18th double-double of the season, while fellow All-Big 12 First Teamer Cory Montgomery added her second double-double of the year with 13 points and 10 rebounds. NU improved to 30-0 overall which tied the 2004-05 and 2005-06 Baylor squads that stretched a 30-game winning streak over two seasons. The Huskers are guided by Big 12 Coach of the Year Connie Yori and have made a huge program turnaround after posting a 15-16 Postseason WNIT Second Round campaign a year ago with virtually the same squad minus freshman point guard Lindsey Moore who is averaging 4.3 assists per game.
PROBABLE STARTING LINEUPS
TEXAS A&M
No. Name (2009-10 Stats)
#4 Sydney Carter, G, 5-6, So. (7.8 ppg, 3.4 apg)
#20 Tyra White, G, 6-0, RS-So. (10.4 ppg, 4.1 rpg)
#22 Tanisha Smith, G/F, 6-0, Sr. (15.4 ppg, 5.3 rpg)
#21 Adaora Elonu, F, 6-1, So. (8.4 ppg, 4.7 rpg)
#2 Damitria Buchanan, F, 6-2, Sr. (3.1 ppg, 4.2 rpg)
NEBRASKA
No. Name (2009-10 Stats)
#00 Lindsey Moore, G, 5-9, Fr. (5.6 ppg, 4.3 apg)
#22 Yvonne Turner, G, 5-8, Sr. (12.0 ppg, 3.7 rpg)
#24 Dominique Kelley, G, 5-7, Jr. (11.8 ppg, 4.0 rpg)
#23 Kelsey Griffin, F, 6-2, Sr. (20.5 ppg, 10.4 rpg)
#40 Cory Montgomery, F, 6-2, Sr. (13.0 ppg, 5.1 rpg)
SERIES NOTES
Nebraska leads 14-7 in the all-time series with Texas A&M. The Aggies, however, have won four out of the last six meetings between the two schools including a 73-64 victory in the quarterfinals of the 2006 Big 12 Championship in Dallas. A&M is 1-1 all-time in postseason tournament games versus Nebraska. The Aggies, the No. 12 seed, also lost to the fifth-seeded Huskers, 82-71, in the first round of the 1999 Tournament held in Kansas City.
LAST SIX GAMES IN THE SERIES
L, 60-71 (-11) on Feb. 6, 2010 in Lincoln, Neb.
W, 86-43 (+43) on Feb. 8, 2009 in College Station
L, 60-73 (-13) on Jan. 23, 2008 in Lincoln, Neb.
W, 66-65 (+1) on Jan. 24, 2007 in College Station
W, 73-64 (+9) on March 8, 2006 in Dallas, Texas
W, 69-50 (+19) on Feb. 11, 2006 in Lincoln, Neb.
THE AGGIES OF MARCH
Texas A&M has played its best basketball leading up to March Madness over the last four years and counting. The Aggies have now won seven out of their last eight games dating back to a 69-63 home victory over Kansas State on Feb. 13. They also won 16 of their last 18 games of the season en route to a program-best NCAA Elite Eight appearance in 2007-08, 9-of-12 games leading into the NCAA Sweet 16 in 2008-09 and 12-of-15 games going into the NCAA Second Round in 2006-07.
KC MASTERPIECE
One thing that sets Texas A&M apart from the rest of the Big 12 Championship field is having the Kansas City combination of All-Big 12 First Team selection Tanisha Smith, Big 12 Newcomer of the Year Danielle Adams and third-leading scorer Tyra White. The trio combined for 57 of the team's 77 points versus rival Texas in the Big 12 quarterfinals on Friday with 21 from Smith and 18 apiece from Adams and White. It mirrored an equally impressive performance by the trio as they pumped out a combined season-high 57 points in a 106-56 blowout of Stephen F. Austin on Dec. 2, 2009. All three starred at area high schools. White was a McDonald's High School All-American out of Hickman Mills High School, while Smith and Adams were JUCO All-Americans at Arkansas-Fort Smith and Jefferson (Mo.) College respectively. Smith played high school ball at Lincoln Prep and Adams at Lee's Summit.
FANTASTIC IN FOUR
Texas A&M tied its best four-year record in school history with the win over Texas in the Big 12 quarterfinals on Friday. The Aggies have gone 104-30 (.776) in the last four years to date under seventh-year head coach Tanisha Smith from 2007-10. It matched a 104-32 (.765) mark set by all-time leading scorer Takia Starks, Danielle Gant and La Toya Micheaux from 2006-09.
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: 23-7 (??)
IN YOUR FACE D
The Aggies' signature in-your-face defense has forced six of its last seven opponents to 20-or-more turnovers in a ballgame including four matchups against top 25 squads. A&M's recent victim was No. 15 Texas who committed a season-high 26 turnovers in the Big 12 quarterfinals on Friday along with Kansas (30), then-No. 11 Oklahoma (21), Colorado (23), Texas (22) and then-No. 17 Oklahoma State (23) in the Aggies' last seven-game stretch.
FROM THE SIDELINES
• Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair is 4-4 lifetime versus Nebraska in his 25 years as a Division I head coach. Blair and Nebraska head coach Connie Yori were both hired by Texas A&M Director of Athletics Bill Byrne. Byrne was previously the AD at Nebraska from 1992-02 and hired Yori away from her alma mater Creighton in 2002, while Byrne hired Blair away from Arkansas in 2003 in his first season in Aggieland.
• Saturday's semifinal game will be the fourth overall time the Aggies will face an unbeaten team so late in the season in program history. Former greats Lisa Langston, Lisa Jordon and Donna Roper were the Maroon and White hardwood stars of the time under former head coach Lynn Hickey. The Aggies would meet unbeaten Texas, led by point guard and current Kansas State associate head coach Kamie Ethridge and coached by Hall of Famer Jody Conradt, twice during the 1985-86 campaign of the old Southwest Conference. A&M faced a 12-0 Longhorn squad in SWC play on Jan. 14, 1986 in College Station (L, 59-73) and a 22-0 squad (L, 64-77) on Feb. 15, 1986 in Austin, Texas. Texas would go on to win the national championship title with a perfect 34-0 record. The Aggies met Nebraska earlier this season when they were 20-0 on Feb. 6.
BIG 12 QUARTERFINALS RECAP
Texas A&M 77, Texas 64
• For the seventh time this season and seventh consecutive game, Texas A&M used the starting lineup of Tanisha Smith, Damitria Buchanan (6-1). The Aggies are on a roll and have now won seven of their last eight games of the season.
• With the victory, A&M continues to dominate the all-time series with Texas winning eight-straight including 10 out of the last 11 meetings between the two in-state rivals. The last six consecutive games have been won in double digits. The Aggies improve to 2-1 in all-time Big 12 Championship games played versus the Longhorns.
• The win also marked the third time in school history in which A&M beat a conference opponent three times in a season next to Baylor as members of the old Southwest Conference during the 1993-94 season and Houston as members of the SWC in 1988-89.
• Adaora Elonu brought down a career-high 11 rebounds against the Longhorns. She has led the Aggies in the rebounding column on six occasions this season and for the third-straight game.
• Tanisha Smith turned in her seventh 20-point game of her career with a game-high tying 21 points versus Texas.
• Tanisha Smith (106) and Sydney Colson (112) to give A&M three players reach 100+ assists in a single season for the first time in the Gary Blair Era and in program history.
AGGIE NOTABLE QUOTABLES
"The undefeated doesn't bother me as much as Nebraska as a whole. Teams are starting to play them a little bit closer. Kansas State played them very well, but we are not Kansas State - a team that runs a 25-second offense and then shoots it in the last five. We are going to play our game which means transition, scoring on opportunist plays that will be open for our kids and being able to have a balance of an inside and outside attack. Kelsey Griffin is going to get hers. What you try to do is limit her touches, keep her off the offensive boards and try not to give her and-ones after she scores a single point. We had to extend a lot more energy out there against Texas, than Nebraska had to against Kansas State, because of our style of play and the rivalry. We just play hard. I'm so proud of our team making five-straight semis and hopefully, we can get to the championship game. Right now, we are playing on house money. We know we are going to have a great seed in the NCAA Tournament. We know the nation and the NCAA selection committee was able to watch us and see how good we actually are. We are playing our best basketball of the year right now. Our rotation is outstanding. You can't tell who's in there. When Nebraska beat us at their place, we got behind in the game 9-0 and their 11,000+ fans were going off on their three three-point plays (to open the game). I don't think that will happen again. They may get ahead of us, but we aren't going to give up three threes in transition or set plays. We will be more prepared and ready for them. I'm just looking forward to the game. We are going to give everything we have and we will not hold back at all. I admire Nebraska for what they've done this season. If we can't win it, than I'd love to see them win the whole national championship - if we can't win it. She (Nebraska head coach Connie Yori) has a special team with a special player in Kelsey Griffin along with (Yvonne) Turner, (Dominique) Kelley and (Cory) Montgomery. We aren't going to be too high. We aren't going to be too low. We are just going to play good `ole, hard-nose Aggie Basketball." - Texas A&M Head Coach Gary Blair on Nebraska
"When we went out to Nebraska, we were in there the whole game, but it was the first three shots that killed us. They shot three threes and we were down 9-0 (early). Every time we looked up at the clock, the rest of the game, we were down nine and saying, `if only we could have gotten those three threes at the beginning.' We know who their shooters are. We are going to handle the press, be strong with the ball, take smart shots and play them down to the end." Texas A&M Junior Forward/Center Danielle Adams on Nebraska
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 Municipal Auditorium 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.