Texas A&M
Arkansas-Little Rock
Aggies Thump Trojans, 87-41
Nov 16, 2010 | Women's Basketball
COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS (AP) - With a player like Danielle Adams, No. 8 Texas A&M figured going inside would be the best way to win.
Coach Gary Blair and the Aggies were right.
Adams had 24 points and 10 rebounds and the Aggies got an easy 87-41 win over Arkansas-Little Rock on Tuesday night.
Texas A&M dominated in the paint behind the performance of Adams and outscored the Trojans 56-10 in that area.
"Coach Blair just wanted to pound the ball inside and see if they could adjust to it," Adams said.
Blair likes that his plan to go inside worked Tuesday, but knows the Aggies won't be able to rely so heavily on scoring inside as the season progresses.
"We're going to have to get those guards back shooting the ball better from the perimeter and they really struggled with that particularly in the first half," he said.
Adams, last year's Big 12 conference newcomer of the year, had 20 points by halftime in the season-opener for the Aggies. It was the third double-double at Texas A&M for Adams, who transferred from Jefferson College before last season after being named junior college player of the year.
Arkansas-Little Rock coach Joe Foley was impressed with Adams.
"I love the way the kid plays," he said. "She's got great moves, she's got great footwork and great hands. That's what makes a team. Anytime you can score in the paint like they do, that makes a great basketball team."
The Aggies led by 21 at halftime and outscored Arkansas-Little Rock 7-2 in the opening minutes of the second half to stretch the lead to 48-21. A 17-1 run later in the second half extended Texas A&M's lead to 69-26.
Arkansas-Little Rock (1-1) was led by Chastity Reed who had 17 points.
Adams and most of the other Texas A&M starters went to the bench with about 10 minutes remaining.
Blair has enjoyed watching the 6-foot-1 Adams develop as a player since joining the team before last season.
"She plays with so much poise," Blair said. "She scores easy. A lot of post players it takes them too many moves and they don't know how to score easy or use their body."
Texas A&M outrebounded Arkansas-Little Rock 47-23 and had just 12 turnovers to the 24 committed by the Trojans.
Highly rated recruit Karla Gilbert, who is 6-foot-5, made her debut for Texas A&M and had 12 points and four rebounds in 14 minutes.
"Once we got her over her jitters in the first couple of minutes she just makes things happens," Blair said.
Maryann Baker added a career-high 10 points for Texas A&M and three players added eight points apiece.
Arkansas-Little Rock, which made its first appearance in the NCAA tournament last season, opened its season Friday with a 76-51 win over Davidson.
The game was tied at 2 before Texas A&M went on a 14-1 run to take a 16-3 lead with 14 minutes remaining in the first half. Adams scored seven of her 20 first half points in that span.
The Aggies were ahead by 14 points later in the first half before scoring six straight points to push the lead to 34-14 about four minutes before halftime.
Texas A&M was without point guard Sydney Colson, who has a sore foot and is day to day.Up next, the Aggies travel to Rice (1-2) on Saturday, Nov. 20 at 7 p.m.
POSTGAME NOTES
- Texas A&M used the starting lineup of Sydney Carter, Maryann Baker, Tyra White, Adaora Elonu and Danielle Adams. It marked only the second career start for Baker, 11th for Adams, 19th for Carter, 34st for White and 41st for Elonu ... every available player got into the game.
- A&M improved to 18-3 all-time in home openers and has won its last eight consecutive opening day contests at Reed Arena.
- The Aggies extended their lead to 4-1 in the all-time series with UALR. A&M won by 46 points which was the largest margin of victory all-time against the Trojans. Fourteen points was largest margin of victory prior.
- The Aggies have now won 38 straight non-conference home games, dating back to a 40-46 loss to Houston on 12/30/03. In addition, A&M has won 70 of its last 77 home games.
- Texas A&M dominated down low and outrebounded UALR 47-23 while outscoring the Trojans 56-10 in the paint.
- Danielle Adams earned her third career double-double. Her last double-double was on 3/22/10 against Gonzaga in the NCAA Second Round.
- Senior Maryann Baker (Dallas, Texas) turned in a career-high 10 points in a career-best 24 minutes against the Trojans.
- Freshman Karla Gilbert (College Station, Texas) had an impressive debut scoring 12 points, including going 6-of-7 from the charity stripe, with four rebounds in 14 minutes of action.
POSTGAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH Gary Blair
On the game...
"I was more nervous about this game than any other opener because of the respect I have for the team we played against. During half time, we talked about being a little more efficient on offense and I thought we did a great job on getting the shot we wanted. We had typical first-game jitters in the first half. Turnovers gave us the wide margin; we tried to slow their offense down because we didn't want them to be able to run their motion offense. I don't think they're too many people in the league who will guard them (UALR) as far out as we did. They're favored to win their league, and I think they'll be back in the (NCAA) tournament this year. We did everything to play defense against the best player in their league (Senior Chastity Reed). Our goal was to get her under 33 percent (shooting), we didn't, but we did force nine turnovers out of her."
On Danielle Adam's play...
"She plays with so much poise. So many post players hurry their shot, but she's able to knock into you and get leverage. She scores easy. A lot of post players can't score easy. The more and more we get Karla (Gilbert) ready, we'll be able to get Danielle over at the four position and get Karla in there (at the five position).
On Adrienne Pratcher's play...
"She just does a good job of running the point. She's getting better and better. I'm always on her because she doesn't talk enough, but one practice she came up and said `Coach I just wasn't you to have confidence in me, that I'm going to run this team well.' That gives you confidence as a coach. She knew she wasn't going to start, but she came out there and played the point very well.
SENIOR FORWARD/CENTER Danielle Adams
On taking the ball to the inside...
"That was the plan all along. Coach Blair wanted to pound the ball inside to see what they had and how they would adjust, that was our plan."
On if she has improved on her post game...
"I think I'm better, but there are still things I need to work on, like defense on the wing. There are always things I need to work on."
SENIOR GUARD Maryann Baker
On whether playing a NCAA tournament team was beneficial...
"Absolutely. The coaches were preaching about how good they were. Not that we take any team lightly, but we knew we had to prepare as if it was a conference game. It was reassuring and gave us confidence to win. I think it was a good first outing. We'll have to look at film, obviously, but I think we have a lot of confidence out there.
On defending Reid...
"She is obviously their best player, their leading scorer. The plan was to limit her touches. They were doing a lot of screens; she's a really good player. She hit some shots, but she gets frustrated easily, so I think we got into her head a little.
On a career high in points...
"It feels good. It's nice to be out there to and to contribute a lot on both sides of the court."
