Texas A&M
7-1
Purdue
4-3
No. 7 Texas A&M Rolls Past Purdue, 100-55
Dec 09, 2010 | Women's Basketball
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) - Danielle Adams tied a career high with 27 points despite early foul trouble and No. 7 Texas A&M cruised to a 100-55 victory over short-handed Purdue on Thursday night.
The Aggies (7-1) built a big lead in the first half and were up 63-35 with about 15 minutes remaining before using a 13-3 run to push their advantage to 76-38 with about 11 minutes left.
Texas A&M hit a season-high 10 3-pointers in the victory to rebound from its first loss of the season, a 61-58 defeat by No. 5 Duke on Monday.
The Boilermakers (4-3) entered the game with two starters missing and played most of the second half without a third after Brittany Rayburn was ejected with 17 1/2 minutes for elbowing Sydney Carter in the face.
Courtney Moses led Purdue with 26 points. The Boilermakers' Drey Mingo is recovering from bacterial meningitis, and KK Houser is out for the season with a right knee injury.
Adams got her second foul 5 minutes into the game and her fourth with about 14 minutes remaining, but didn't foul again before going to the bench with 3 minutes remaining. It is the 17th straight game that Adams has scored in double figures.
Purdue had trouble dealing with Texas A&M's speed and had 26 turnovers to nine by the Aggies.
Rayburn's flagrant foul came after elbowing Carter in the jaw as Carter tried to steal the ball from Rayburn. Carter fell to the court in pain.
After reviewing the play and discussing it for a couple of minutes, Rayburn was ejected from the game with Texas A&M leading 57-29. Carter went to the bench for a few minutes before returning to the game.
Rayburn finished with six points. Texas A&M freshman Karla Gilbert scored a season-high 15 points and Adaora Elonu added 11.
Adams scored 10 points in the first five minutes of the game to help the Aggies build a 15-7 lead before going to the bench with her second foul. Texas A&M was up by 10 points later in the half before going on an 16-2 run powered by three, 3-pointers to take a 47-23 lead about two minutes before halftime.
The Aggies led 51-27 at halftime with a season high for first-half points.
It was Purdue's first visit to College Station and the first time these teams have met since 1995. It was also the last game in the Big Ten/Big 12 Challenge that began Nov. 21. The Big Ten won 7-5.
POSTGAME NOTES
- For the third time this season, Texas A&M used the starting lineup of Sydney Colson, Sydney Carter, Tyra White, Adaora Elonu and Danielle Adams. All available Aggies saw action in the game.
- The Aggies moved to 1-2 in the all-time series with Purdue. Forty-five points was the largest margin of victory all-time between the two teams. A&M led by as many as 48 points during the contest.
- The Aggies have now won 41 straight non-conference home games, dating back to a 40-46 loss to Houston on 12/30/03. In addition, A&M has won 73 of its last 80 home games.
- The Aggies scored a season-high 100 points against Purdue. In addition, A&M posted season-highs in assists (24), field goals made (34), 3-point field goals made (10), 3-point field goal percentage (58.8, 10-17) and free throw percentage (.815, 22-27).
- A&M's 100 points marked the 13th time in program history that the Aggies have scored 100 or more points in a game. The last time A&M reached the 100-point mark was on Dec. 8, 2009 in a 108-49 win against North Texas.
- A&M had a season-low nine turnovers, while forcing Purdue to a season-high 26 turnovers. The Aggies outscored Purdue 37-5 off of turnovers.
- With a season-high 24 assists, the Aggies have had 20 or more assists in two games this season, with the other being against UALR on Nov. 16.
- The Aggie bench registered a season-high 35 points and outscored Purdue, 35-12.
- Sydney Carter (DeSoto, Texas) dished out a career-high eight assists against the Boilermakers.
- Kristi Bellock (St. Rose, La.) was the first post player off the bench and played a career-high 16 minutes while contributing a season-best six points. Kristen Grant (Arlington, Texas) also saw a career-high 10 minutes of action.
POSTGAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH Gary Blair
On leaving Danielle Adams in the game with four fouls...
"I left Danielle in the game because when she left the game earlier she was hitting on all cylinders and I've been tired of seeing the big scores from other players in the league and then seeing Danielle play point-per-minute games here. I also left her in because she needs to learn how to play with her fourth foul. I wanted to see if she could play defense and play smart ball without fouling out.
On what Purdue lacked offensively...
"They didn't have a creator like (Duke's) Jasmine Thomas. I think that's the thing that they're lacking right now. (Brittany) Rayburn has to come off screens and she's very good at that. You have to be able to create offense when the defense takes certain things away and they just didn't have that today."
On being proud of the team after bouncing back from a loss at Duke...
"I was proud of how we got off the bus at four o'clock (Tuesday) and went right into the practice gym and had one of the best workouts we've had all year. Our kids were tired and had a full day of travel, but they just said hey, let's go into the gym and get better, and we did. We started running our zone offense a whole lot better, like you saw tonight."
On the team's toughness...
"This team is pretty resilient to whatever comes their way. We don't get too high or too low. The Duke game, we know, was just a missed opportunity. That's what the road will do. If we were at home, I believe we would have found a way to win that game or our crowd would have found a way to help us win."
SENIOR FORWARD/CENTER Danielle Adams
On learning to continue to play even with four fouls...
"After my fourth foul, I thought Coach Blair was going to take me out. I just tried to keep my composure. I think it'll help down the road. I had two early fouls in the first half, had to sit out and only played five minutes the first half. I knew I had to come back in the second half and give it my all."
On having success behind the 3-point line...
`I've been working on coming down off of transition and hitting the 3 after practice. I've been practicing every day after practice and I just hit them tonight."
On how the opposing team reacts if they can stop her inside...
"If they stop me inside, we have everyone else who can contribute to the team. Everyone's game plan is to double me inside or stop me, but my teammates can help, like Karla (Gilbert) tonight, she did a good job."
JUNIOR GUARD Sydney Carter
On where she got hit and the nature of the flagrant foul...
"I got hit in the left jaw. It happened so fast, I haven't really had time to think about it. She (Brittany Rayburn) wasn't being negative in the game or anything, but I think I tend to have that effect on people. The only thing I remember was denying her, missing the ball and then all of a sudden the elbow came."
On the team's plan against Purdue...
"We were really looking to get it inside. When they were doubling us inside, our posts did a really good job of passing the ball out to the guards and our shots were just falling."
On bouncing back after the Duke loss...
"It was great. I remember Coach Bond telling us to take the loss out on Purdue. I think we did a really good job of that. It feels good to know that we can bounce back from a loss like that and know that we can look better than we did on television the other day."
PURDUE HEAD COACH SHARON VERSYP
Opening statement...
"Texas A&M ... obviously, they're ranked seventh but they're a top-4 team in the country to me. After losing to Duke, I knew they were going to shoot well. I knew they would bounce back after that game and all the shots fell tonight compared to Monday."
On Danielle Adams...
"She has a great feel for the game and when she hits her first few shots, she's going to have a good game. You try to keep her off the boards down low, but she's just a great player."
